Departamento de Conservación y Recreación (DCR) Conservar. Proteger. Disfrutar.
Departamento de Conservación y Recreación (DCR) 
Tabla de contenidosBosques y bosques de Boulderfield de gran elevación
These open forests and woodlands occupy relatively unweathered boulderfields at elevations above 900 m (3,000 ft) in both the Blue Ridge and Ridge and Valley provinces. Communities in this group are known to occur from West Virginia south to northern Georgia. In Virginia, yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis), American mountain-ash (Sorbus americana), and mountain maple (Acer spicatum) are the typical dominants of boulderfields weathered from granite, metabasalt, rhyolite, quartzite, and sandstone at the highest elevations. These habitats are usually best developed on north-facing slopes, where extreme winter temperatures, high winds, and ice storms strongly influence forest physiognomy. Trees here are typically gnarled and widely spaced because of difficult establishment and repeated damage from wind and ice. Typical shrubs include gooseberries (Ribes cynosbati, Ribes glandulosum, Ribes rotundifolium), hobblebush (Viburnum lantanoides), red raspberry (Rubus idaeus ssp. strigosus), and red-berried elder (Sambucus racemosus var. pubens ). The high cover of exposed rock in these habitats tends to limit overall species richness and herbaceous density. However, the Appalachian rock polypody (Polypodium appalachianum) is often abundant. Additional herbaceous species such as yellow blue-bead lily (Clintonia borealis), whorled aster (Oclemena acuminata = Aster acuminatus), Appalachian oak fern (Gymnocarpium appalachianum), marbled alumroot (Heuchera pubescens), brownish sedge (Carex brunnescens), and summer sedge (Carex aestivalis) may occur where substrate conditions are suitable. Cool microclimates favor the occurrence of many northern and high mountain species.
La salamandra de Shenandoah (Plethodon shenandoah), rara en el mundo y incluida en la lista federal, es endémica de tres campos de rocas de alta elevación y escasa arbolado en el norte de Blue Ridge (condados de Page y Madison).
Este grupo se distingue fácilmente de los bosques de Boulderfield de baja elevación por el dominio casi completo de las especies del norte y el sur de los Apalaches que están confinadas a hábitats microclimáticamente fríos.Referencias: Fleming y Coulling (2001), Fleming et al. (2007), Johnson y Ware (1982), Rheinhardt y Ware (1984).
Haga clic aquí para ver más fotos de este grupo comunitario ecológico.
© DCR-DNH, Gary P. Fleming.
Descargue una hoja de cálculo de estadísticas de resumen de composición para cada uno de los tipos de comunidad que se enumeran a continuación.
Volver al principio de la página
siguiente Grupo Ecológico anterior Grupo Ecológico
