Common (Translated Scientific) Name: Virginia Pine / Blue Ridge Blueberry / Little Bluestem - Pennsylvania Sedge Woodland

Colloquial Name: Blue Ridge Acidic Shale Woodland

Hierarchy Level:  Association

Type Concept: This community occurs on steep, shaley slopes in the Southern Appalachians and has an open to closed, stunted canopy and sparse herb and shrub strata characterized by species able to grow in loose shale fragments. It is known from the Hot Springs Window, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and occurs elsewhere in the Southern Appalachians, such as the Chauga Basin, South Carolina, and from Chilhowee Mountain, Tennessee. The canopy (5-25 m tall, 25-75% cover) is dominated by Pinus virginiana, with Quercus montana and Quercus rubra sometimes present in substantial numbers in less extreme habitats. The shrub layer is very sparse, and may include scattered individuals of Kalmia latifolia, Vaccinium stamineum, and Vaccinium pallidum. The herb layer is very sparse to patchy, and is dominated by Schizachyrium scoparium, Carex pensylvanica, Danthonia spicata, Dichanthelium linearifolium, with scattered individuals of Coreopsis major, Houstonia longifolia, Hieracium venosum, and Euphorbia corollata. Lichens are frequent, particularly on in-place outcrops, and include Cladonia rangiferina and Cladonia spp. Loose shale fragments cover 50-90% of the ground surface. It is apparently a long-lived community, maintained by harsh edaphic conditions of steep slopes and shifting shale substrate. The community can vary quite widely from a very open canopy to one that is almost closed in cases where the slope is less steep and/or the rock underlying the stand is more stable.

Diagnostic Characteristics: No Data Available

Rationale for Nominal Species or Physiognomic Features: No Data Available

Classification Comments: Five plots from the area of Hot Springs, North Carolina, are classified as this association in the Appalachian Trail classification study (Fleming and Patterson 2009a). These plots have 27 species with >60% constancy. Species with >80% constancy include, in order of descending constancy, Pinus virginiana, Quercus montana, Quercus rubra, Vaccinium stamineum, Campanula divaricata, Coreopsis major, Andropogon virginicus var. virginicus, Hieracium venosum, Juniperus virginiana var. virginiana, Danthonia spicata, and Acer rubrum. This type is distinguished from the various shale barren types of western Virginia, eastern West Virginia, western Maryland, and south-central Pennsylvania by the complete absence of the distinctive endemic flora of that region. L.L. Gaddy (pers. comm.) reports this association from the Chauga Basin, South Carolina, and it is known from Chilhowee Mountain, Tennessee.

This association shares many floristic elements with ~Quercus montana - Pinus virginiana - (Pinus pungens) / Schizachyrium scoparium - Dichanthelium depauperatum Woodland (CEGL008540)$$, a Central Appalachian acidic woodland of various substrates other than shale, occurring in Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia. The two associations emerged as distinct in cluster analysis (Fleming and Patterson 2009a); however, when comparing the constant species (>60%) of the two groups, only three species, Andropogon virginicus var. virginicus, Carya pallida, and Ulmus alata, were present in samples of this association (CEGL003624) (n=5) and not in those of CEGL008540 (n=28). In this comparison, less constant species which are unique to CEGL008540 are Chionanthus virginicus, Cornus florida, Gaylussacia baccata, Quercus ilicifolia, and Quercus stellata, but with a larger sample of CEGL003624, those differences may not hold.

Similar NVC Types: No Data Available

note: No Data Available