Common (Translated Scientific) Name: Pitch Pine - (Blackjack Oak, Bear Oak) / Sheep Laurel / Pine Barren Sandreed Wet Scrub

Colloquial Name: Hydric Pine Plains (Shrub Type)

Hierarchy Level:  Association

Type Concept: Stands are dominated by dwarf-form Pinus rigida. Tree oaks are absent. Shrubs include Gaylussacia baccata, Gaylussacia frondosa, Gaylussacia dumosa, and Kalmia angustifolia. Herbs include Xerophyllum asphodeloides, Calamovilfa brevipilis. Hydric pine plains are small-patch community types structurally similar to upland "pine plains" of the central Pinelands with high densities of dwarf serotinous Pinus rigida in a coppice shrubland 1.5-4.5 m (5-15 feet) tall, but are actually palustrine shrublands with a range of hydrologic conditions and associated wetland species similar to those of pitch pine lowlands. Tree oaks and shrub oaks are absent. They are restricted to the central Pinelands, mostly in small lowlands or swales within the pine plains or in pitch pine lowlands adjacent to the pine plains in the plains/barrens subregion; a few outlier occurrences are also found in other frequently or severely burned pitch pine lowlands.

Diagnostic Characteristics: No Data Available

Rationale for Nominal Species or Physiognomic Features: No Data Available

Classification Comments: Hydric pine plains dwarf-pine community described by A. Windisch (HPP or PLs). Hydric pine plains include several types (associations or variants) which are floristically similar to the continuum of pitch pine lowland analogs, with comparable heath shrubs or herbs present in similar hydrologic settings. The wetter pine plains types are found in seasonally saturated to shallowly flooded hydric sites. These include dwarf pitch pine-leatherleaf hydric pine plains (HPP1), dwarf pitch pine-highbush blueberry hydric pine plains (HPP2) and dwarf pitch pine-inkberry hydric pine plains (HPP3), with an open to closed shrubland of dwarf pitch pine codominated with heath shrubs including Chamaedaphne calyculata, Vaccinium corymbosum, Ilex glabra, and/or Gaylussacia dumosa. Associated herbs often include Sphagnum spp. and Rubus hispidus.

The drier hydric pine plains types are found in hydric to subhydric sites where only the subsoil becomes seasonally saturated. These include dwarf pitch pine-mixed heath hydric pine plains (HPP5) and dwarf pitch pine-black huckleberry hydric pine plains (HPP6), with an open to closed shrubland of dwarf pitch pine codominated with heath shrubs including Gaylussacia baccata, Gaylussacia frondosa, Kalmia angustifolia, and/or Lyonia mariana, plus 5-10% cover of Vaccinium corymbosum in HPP5. Associated herbs include Pyxidanthera barbulata, Xerophyllum asphodeloides, Gaultheria procumbens, and others. A few subhydric sites within the Plains support dwarf pitch pine-sand myrtle hydric pine plains (HPP7) where Leiophyllum buxifolium dominates along with these heaths.

Similar NVC Types: No Data Available

note: No Data Available