Department of Conservation and Recreation
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Department of Conservation and Recreation
Table of ContentsBasic Mesic Forests
Dominant trees include tulip-tree (Liriodendron tulipifera), American beech (Fagus grandifolia), bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis), basswoods (Tilia americana var. americana and var. heterophylla), white ash (Fraxinus americana), black walnut (Juglans nigra), and northern red oak (Quercus rubra). Chinquapin oak (Quercus muehlenbergii), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), black maple (Acer nigrum), and southern sugar maple (Acer floridanum) are important in some of the community types. Shrub and herb layers contain a number of species that are atypical of mountain slopes, such as pawpaw (Asimina triloba), painted buckeye (Aesculus sylvatica), twinleaf (Jeffersonia diphylla), harbinger-of-spring (Erigenia bulbosa), lowland bladder fern (Cystopteris protrusa), and toadshade (Trillium sessile). Widespread herbs include species such as northern maidenhair fern (Adiantum pedatum), hog-peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata), puttyroot (Aplectrum hyemale), common jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum ssp. triphyllum), common wild ginger (Asarum canadense), common black cohosh (Actaea racemosa), large yellow lady's-slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens), silvery spleenwort (Deparia acrostichoides), squirrel corn (Dicentra canadensis), Dutchman's breeches (Dicentra cucullaria), showy orchis (Galearis spectabilis), round-lobed hepatica (Anemone americana), green violet (Cubelium concolor), pennywort (Obolaria virginica), aniseroot (Osmorhiza longistylis), broad beech fern (Phegopteris hexagonoptera), mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum), bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), small-flower baby-blue-eyes (Nemophila aphylla), and heart-leaved foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia).
The five community types classified to date are segregated by geography and associated substrates. Slopes subtending streams cutting through limestone and other calcium-rich substrates of the mountain valleys and Piedmont support a distinctive community type characterized by lush growth of twinleaf, dwarf larkspur (Delphinium tricorne), broad-leaved waterleaf (Hydrophyllum canadense), and other spring ephemerals. Coastal Plain ravines that have downcut into Tertiary shell deposits in James City and York Counties and the City of Suffolk support an endemic community type with abundant southern sugar maple and many noteworthy mountain disjuncts.
Basic Mesic Forests are the low-elevation analogues of Rich Cove and Slope Forests. Excepting stands in the northwestern and west-central Virginia mountain valleys, they occur in non-montane settings and contain a substantial number of species that are confined to low elevations in Virginia. The extent and viability of basic mesic forests has been much reduced by repeated logging and invasive introduced weeds.
References: Fleming (1999), Fleming (2002a), Fleming (2002b), Fleming et al. (2007), Fleming and Coulling (2001), Fleming and Patterson (2004), Rawinski et al. (1996), Vanderhorst (2000), Walton et al. (2001), Ware and Ware (1992).
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© DCR-DNH, Gary P. Fleming.
Download a spreadsheet of compositional summary statistics for each of the community types listed below.
