Common (Translated Scientific) Name: Red Maple - Green Ash Floodplain Forest Alliance

Colloquial Name: Midwest Red Maple - Green Ash Floodplain Forest

Hierarchy Level:  Alliance

Type Concept: This alliance is widely distributed in the central and eastern United States and may occur in southern Ontario and southern Quebec, Canada. Stands are dominated by broad-leaved deciduous trees and have well-developed shrub and herbaceous strata. Acer rubrum and Fraxinus pennsylvanica are consistently abundant overstory species, but Quercus bicolor, Ulmus americana, and Celtis occidentalis occur frequently. Sites which support stands of this alliance have level or nearly level soils that formed in water-deposited clayey or loamy sediments on floodplains of the rivers and streams. These soils are flooded or saturated for a significant portion of the growing season, and water may be ponded for most of the year in shallow depressions.

Diagnostic Characteristics: This alliance is distinguished by a dominance of Fraxinus pennsylvanica and Acer rubrum compared to other alliances dominated by Acer saccharum and Acer saccharinum. It is restricted to the central and north-central Midwest.

Rationale for Nominal Species or Physiognomic Features: No Data Available

Classification Comments: This alliance is restricted to areas across the central Midwest ranging east to New England. Similar communities occur to the north into the Laurentian-Acadian areas of the U.S. and Canada. Further review of these floodplain alliances and groups will be needed. As defined, this type is primarily found not in the Laurentian-Acadian region. It may be that the northern limit, as with ~Silver Maple - Sugarberry - Sweetgum Floodplain Forest Group (G673)$$, is related to the presence of Platanus occidentalis, Salix nigra, and other central hardwood floodplain species. It is missing many of the diagnostic species typical of G673.

Similar NVC Types: No Data Available

note: No Data Available