Print Report
A3125 Pinus palustris / Quercus margarettae / Aristida spp. Southeastern Coastal Plain Woodland Alliance
Type Concept Sentence: These woodlands are dominated by Pinus palustris and mixed scrub oaks, including Quercus margarettae, along with Aristida stricta, Aristida beyrichiana, Aristida purpurascens, Schizachyrium scoparium, Sorghastrum nutans, and other grasses on loamy sand soils, which frequently burn. This vegetation is found on the Southeastern Coastal Plain and Fall-line Sandhills, east of the Mississippi River.
Common (Translated Scientific) Name: Longleaf Pine / Sand Post Oak / Three-awn species Southeastern Coastal Plain Woodland Alliance
Colloquial Name: Southeastern Coastal Plain Longleaf Pine / Sand Post Oak / Wiregrass Woodland
Hierarchy Level: Alliance
Type Concept: These are dry-mesic uplands of longleaf pine and mixed scrub oaks of the Southeastern Coastal Plain and Fall-line Sandhills, east of the Mississippi River. These woodlands are dominated by Pinus palustris and mixed scrub oaks, including Quercus margarettae, Quercus incana, Quercus marilandica, and Quercus laevis, along with Gaylussacia dumosa, Aristida stricta, Aristida beyrichiana, Aristida purpurascens, Schizachyrium scoparium, Sorghastrum nutans, and other grasses. These are not on the driest sites, but are on loamy sand soils with naturally open woodlands with shrubs, which frequently burn.
Diagnostic Characteristics: These are dry to dry-mesic uplands of longleaf pine and mixed scrub oaks of the Southeastern Coastal Plain and Fall-line Sandhills, east of the Mississippi River. These are on naturally open woodlands with sandy or loamy sand soils, which frequently burn.
Rationale for Nominal Species or Physiognomic Features: No Data Available
Classification Comments: There are many Pinus palustris-associated species whose ranges do not cross the Mississippi River (Sorrie and Weakley 2001). The four Pinus palustris / Quercus marilandica associations included here (CEGL004489, CEGL003595, CEGL003598, and CEGL003599, formerly in old alliance A.499) were separated into another southeastern alliance, ~Pinus palustris / Quercus marilandica / Aristida spp. Southeastern Coastal Plain Clayhill Woodland Alliance (A3126)$$ (east of the Mississippi River).
Similar NVC Types: No Data Available
note: No Data Available
Physiognomy and Structure: The structure of these communities is highly variable, depending on fire frequency. Generally, examples of these communities which have been managed with frequent prescribed fire have an open canopy of Pinus palustris, with scattered trees and shrubs of Quercus spp.; the oaks are otherwise reduced to sprouts. With lower fire frequency, these communities often develop a dense subcanopy, shrub layer, or even canopy of scrub oaks. In addition, fire suppression may promote ingrowth of other pines, particularly Pinus clausa, Pinus echinata, and/or Pinus taeda.
Floristics: This alliance includes dry to dry-mesic Pinus palustris communities, characterized by the presence of one or more scrub oaks, most characteristically including Quercus arkansana, Quercus chapmanii, Quercus geminata, Quercus incana, Quercus laevis, Quercus margarettae, Quercus marilandica, Quercus minima, Quercus myrtifolia, Quercus stellata, sometimes in combination with the more mesic oaks Quercus falcata, Quercus nigra, Quercus pumila, and Quercus virginiana. Where a well-developed shrub stratum is present, common shrubs include Ilex vomitoria, Rhus copallinum, Vaccinium arboreum, and Vaccinium stamineum; in addition, Asimina parviflora, Gaylussacia dumosa (= var. dumosa), Gaylussacia frondosa, Morella cerifera (= Myrica cerifera), Vaccinium virgatum (= Vaccinium amoenum), Vaccinium elliottii, and Vaccinium tenellum may occur in some associations. Aristida stricta or Aristida beyrichiana are also dominant, or at least present within their ranges, in the herbaceous layer of many associations. Other characteristic grasses include Andropogon gyrans, Andropogon ternarius, Aristida purpurascens, Schizachyrium scoparium, Sporobolus junceus.
Dynamics: In these shrubby woodlands of Pinus palustris and Quercus spp., a higher canopy closure (greater than 60%) may be the result of past logging, fire suppression or lack of fire in woodlands typically dominated by Pinus palustris. Oaks present may include Quercus falcata, Quercus incana, Quercus margarettae, Quercus marilandica, Quercus montana, and Quercus stellata, which will frequently be present in the understory or also scattered in the overstory, depending on the moisture regime. The open woodland structure may be natural, but it may also be maintained by silvicultural techniques and prescribed fire designed to replicate this natural condition, and promote Pinus palustris. At many sites, both forest and woodland communities may be present, grading into one another depending on aspect, soils, past logging or fire history.
Environmental Description: Soils on which this alliance has been documented to occur in North Carolina (and some other states) include Dothan (Plinthic Paleudult), Fuquay (Plinthic Paleudult), Gilead (Aquic Hapludult), Kureb (Typic Quartzipsamment), Lakeland (Typic Quartzipsamment), Mandarin (Typic Haplohumod), and Vaucluse (Typic Hapludult); some more mesic examples occur on the Wagram series (Arenic Paleudult). In the East Gulf Coastal Plain, it has been found on Troup, Lucy, and Eustis-Lakeland complex. One unusual association in Georgia is known from Broxton Rocks (Coffee County), where it is associated with sandstone outcrops of the Altamaha Grit. A Mississippi association placed here is found on well-drained upland soils with a strong clay component, including McLaurin loamy sand, Benndale sandy loam, and Heidel sandy loam.
Geographic Range: This alliance is found on the Southeastern Coastal Plain and Fall-line Sandhills, east of the Mississippi River. It ranges from North Carolina to the Florida peninsula, and east to southern Mississippi and easternmost Louisiana.
Nations: US
States/Provinces: AL, FL, GA, LA?, MS, NC, SC
Plot Analysis Summary:
http://vegbank.org/natureserve/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.899251
Confidence Level: Moderate
Confidence Level Comments: No Data Available
Grank: GNR
Greasons: No Data Available
Concept Lineage: The associations in this alliance represent a set from the old alliance A.499 which occur east of the Mississippi River, excluding the driest associations which are in G154.
Predecessors: No Data Available
Obsolete Names: No Data Available
Obsolete Parents: No Data Available
Synonomy: = Dry Upland Longleaf Pine Woodlands (Edwards et al. 2013)
>< IB6c. Southeastern Coastal Plain Subxeric Pine - Oak Sandhill (Allard 1990)
? IB6d. Southeastern Coastal Plain Subxeric Longleaf Pine - Saw Palmetto Woodland (Allard 1990)
>< Longleaf Pine: 70 (Eyre 1980)
>< IB6c. Southeastern Coastal Plain Subxeric Pine - Oak Sandhill (Allard 1990)
? IB6d. Southeastern Coastal Plain Subxeric Longleaf Pine - Saw Palmetto Woodland (Allard 1990)
>< Longleaf Pine: 70 (Eyre 1980)
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- Allen, R. M. 1956. Relation of saw-palmetto to longleaf pine reproduction on a dry site. Ecology 37:195-196.
- Edwards, L., J. Ambrose, and K. Kirkman. 2013. The natural communities of Georgia. University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA. 675 pp.
- Eyre, F. H., editor. 1980. Forest cover types of the United States and Canada. Society of American Foresters, Washington, DC. 148 pp.
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- Pessin, L. J. 1933. Forest associations in the uplands of the lower Gulf Coastal Plain (longleaf pine belt). Ecology 14:1-14.
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- Sorrie, B. A., and A. S. Weakley. 2001. Coastal Plain vascular plant endemics: Phytogeography patterns. Castanea 66(1-2):50-82.
- Wentworth, T. R., M. P. Schafale, A. S. Weakley, R. K. Peet, P. S. White, and C. C. Frost. 1993. A preliminary classification of North Carolina barrier island forests. Pages 31-46 in: C. A. Cole and F. K. Turner, editors. Barrier island ecology of the mid-Atlantic coast: A symposium. Technical Report NPS/SERCAHA/NRTR-93/04. National Park Service, Atlanta, GA.