On the dry knoll at the top of the slope, black oak (Quercus velutina), red oak (Q. rubra), chestnut oak (Quercus prinus), white oak (Q. alba), shagbark hickory (Carya ovata), pignut hickory (C. glabra), red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), sassafras (Sassafras albidum), and white pine (Pinus strobus) are found. In the understory are flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium and V. pallidum), wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens), pussytoes (Antennaria plantaginifolia), and many mosses.
On the rich, gravelly lower slope, characteristic species are basswood (Tilia americana), red maple (Acer rubrum), sugar maple (Acer saccharum), white ash (Fraxinus americana), and black cherry (Prunus serotina). At the base of the slope, the creek meanders across a floodplain through gravelly material. Characteristic floodplain species include sycamore (Platanus occidentalis), cottonwood (Populus deltoides), black walnut (Juglans nigra) and butternut (Juglans cinerea). Spring wildflowers are abundant.
Ecological Communities
Appalachian oak -hickory forest
A hardwood forest that occurs on well-drained sites, usually on flat hilltops, upper slopes, or south and west facing slopes. Dominant trees include one or more of red oak, white oak, and black oak. Mixed with oaks, are one or more of pignut, shagbark, and sweet pignut hickory. Common associates are white ash, red maple, and hop hornbeam. Small trees include flowering dogwood, witch hazel, shadbush, and choke cherry. Shrubs and ground layer flora are diverse. Shrubs include maple-leaf viburnum, blueberries, red raspberry, gray dogwood, and beaked hazelnut.
Beech-maple mesic forest
A hardwood forest with sugar maple and beech codominant. Found on moist, well-drained soils, on north and east facing slopes, and on gently sloping hilltops of any aspect, this type rarely occurs in ravines. Common associates are basswood, American elm, white ash, yellow birch, hop hornbeam, and red maple. Characteristic species in the sub- canopy are musclewood, striped maple, witch hazel, hobblebush, and alternate-leaved dogwood. There typically are few herbs and shrubs, but tree seedlings may be abundant. There are many spring ephemerals.
Hemlock-northern hardwood forest
A forest that typically occurs on lower slopes of ravines, on cool, mid-elevation slopes, and at the edges of drainage divide swamps. Hemlock is a codominant species with one to three others: beech, sugar maple, red maple, black cherry, white pine, yellow birch, black birch, red oak, and basswood. Shrubs have low abundance, but striped maple may be present. Herbs characteristic of northern and montane areas are common.