Common (Translated Scientific) Name: Green Ash - American Elm - (Nuttall Oak) / Bearded Beggarticks - Whitegrass Floodplain Forest

Colloquial Name: Upper West Gulf Coastal Plain Floodplain Forest

Hierarchy Level:  Association

Type Concept: This forest community is located on flats adjacent to floodplain drainages and abandoned channels on the Upper West Gulf Coastal Plain of southern Arkansas. The canopy is moderately tall (to 21+ m [70+ feet]), closed, and layered with emergent Quercus texana in some instances, lacking in others. This forest community is relatively dense with smaller trees and more stems than surrounding types. Dominant tree species include Fraxinus pennsylvanica, Ulmus americana, Quercus texana, and Gleditsia triacanthos. Celtis laevigata and Acer negundo occur commonly in the understory with saplings of the canopy species. Cephalanthus occidentalis is an occasional shrub. Common herbs include Bidens aristosa, Bignonia capreolata, Boehmeria cylindrica, Carex intumescens, Leersia virginica, and Lycopus virginicus. The common woody vines include Berchemia scandens and Toxicodendron radicans. The herbaceous layer is sparse. Little litter is present, with bare ground exposed throughout. This community appears transitional between ~Quercus phellos / Chasmanthium laxum - Carex (flaccosperma, intumescens) - Hymenocallis liriosme Wet Flatwoods Forest (CEGL007371)$$ and ~Quercus texana - (Carya aquatica) / Cornus foemina / Symphyotrichum lanceolatum - Leersia virginica Floodplain Forest (CEGL007988)$$. This community is inundated deeper than the Quercus phellos flats but drains more rapidly but not as rapidly as the Quercus texana floodplain forest. This community is located in beaver impacted areas. Both the change in hydrology and active removal of some species by beaver are evident. This community also occurs in anthropogenically impacted areas such as where roads have altered the local hydrology and in moist soil units developed by local hunters. The type location is in Dallas County, Arkansas. Examples are known from Big Cypress Unique Area and Pine Bluff Arsenal. This community is also known from Jefferson County, Arkansas, and is likely extant throughout the Upper West Gulf Coastal Plain.

Diagnostic Characteristics: No Data Available

Rationale for Nominal Species or Physiognomic Features: No Data Available

Classification Comments: I.B.2.N.d.11. Not the riparian type of Oklahoma but the "poorly drained bottoms" referred to by Foti et al. 1994. This community appears both natural and anthropogenic. The forest is perhaps successional (or perhaps a disturbed Quercus texana forest) in areas of altered hydrology. Because the beaver dams are continually blown-up, the area never actually succeeds to anything, and moist soil units are managed for ducks not forest communities. Timber harvesting (high-grading oaks) may also distort the community composition. The community could be regenerating itself; there are no oak seedling in the understory. It appears relatively species depauperate. I''m not sure about the soil. NRCS says acidic Guyton Series but there is Quercus pagoda and other species that prefer a more base rich environment in the area. We need to work on this type (find some older examples) but I would like to get it into the classification.

Similar NVC Types: No Data Available

note: No Data Available