Common (Translated Scientific) Name: Sweetgum - (Red Maple) Floodplain Forest

Colloquial Name: Upper West Gulf Coastal Plain Sweetgum Swamp Forest

Hierarchy Level:  Association

Type Concept: This type may become a representative for vegetation documented at Pond Creek Bottoms, Arkansas (Upper West Gulf Coastal Plain, Sevier and Little River counties), and other related sites in Arkansas and Louisiana. One possible name for this type is Liquidambar styraciflua - (Quercus lyrata, Acer rubrum) / (Forestiera ligustrina, Ilex decidua) Forest.

Diagnostic Characteristics: No Data Available

Rationale for Nominal Species or Physiognomic Features: No Data Available

Classification Comments: There is a Liquidambar styraciflua-dominated type in ponded areas and shallow sloughs at Pond Creek Bottoms in southwestern Arkansas, Sevier and Little River counties (Campbell et al. 1996, J. Campbell pers. comm., D. Zollner pers. comm. cited in Weakley et al. 1996). This association may become a representative for this vegetation documented at Pond Creek Bottoms, and other related sites in Arkansas and Louisiana (D. Zollner pers. comm.). Keith Utchley (Louisiana) also has data; some stands have Liquidambar trees which are over 400 years old (D. Zollner pers. comm.). The habitat at Pond Creek Bottoms is given as "ponded areas and shallow sloughs near Little River (NW side of site) where water levels appear to have risen in recent years due to beaver damming or increased flooding due to the Millwood Reservoir" (Campbell et al. 1996). Forestiera ligustrina may be an associate further east on the Coastal Plain. Other woody species include Acer rubrum, Salix nigra, Planera aquatica, Quercus lyrata, Cephalanthus occidentalis, Cornus foemina, Styrax americanus, Hibiscus sp., Brunnichia ovata, and Cardiospermum halicacabum. Herbs include Carex joorii, Cyperus erythrorhizos, Hydrocotyle verticillata, Triadenum walteri, Limnobium spongia, Lycopus rubellus, Mikania scandens, Polygonum hydropiperoides, Proserpinaca palustris, Rhynchospora corniculata, and Saururus cernuus.

Should CEGL007387 become this "OC(?)" type? The number CEGL007387 was originally assigned to the "alliance placeholder" in 1996 when CEGLs were initially assigned. The Campbell/Zollner information was attached to the alliance description prior to April 1996.

This forest may just be successional to oak types, or a transition from hydric Taxodium or Quercus lyrata - Carya aquatica forest to subhydric Quercus (michauxii, pagoda) - (Liquidambar) forest. Further north in the Mississippi Valley, it may be grouped with Quercus palustris forest, at least on poorer soils. In the inventory (e.g., Campbell et al. 1996), several areas on the Pond Creek Bottoms (Sevier and Little River counties) may be defined as this, but they are usually not distinguished from records of mixed slough and interslough types (Campbell et al. 1996). JC 2001-04-06: "My Arky vegetational sense is rusty, but I don''t remember much special about this--isn''t it just a fairly standard poorly drained (seasonally-?semipermanently flooded) sweetgum variant for the coastal plain? Not much local regional differentiation either. It could be disturbance influenced, but late-succession/old-growth sweetgum is also possible, and I think Tom Foti thinks there was a widespread sweetgum type before settlement."

Similar NVC Types: No Data Available

note: No Data Available