FNAI COMMUNITY:

Mesic Flatwoods

STAGE DESCRIPTION

• Overstory: Partially to nearly closed overstory of mature or mixed age yellow pine (slash, pond, or longleaf) with a canopy of 50 to 75% closure and a modal tree height range of 3 - 60 feet.

  Mid Story: Sparsely intermixed shrubby oaks (live oak and laurel oak) with numerous ericacious shrubs such as fetter-bushes.  Also present is tar-flower and gallberry that are 2 to 4 feet in height and are found interspersed as mid-story small clumps in the general mix of groundcover vegetation.

• Ground Cover: Large clumps and(or) broad patches of saw palmetto loosely arranged or in denser thickets with a cover dominance of 30% to 50% and an average height  ranging from 2 to 4 feet.  Patches of fairly thick pyrhic grasses such as wire grass mixed together with smaller patches of herbaceous cover typical of flatwoods.
• Duff/Litter Layer: Moderate amounts of  pine needle litter of 1 to several inches thick with few mineral soil openings.  Palmetto thickets exhibit moderate amounts of built-up dead palmetto thatch.  No significant small dead woody debris with few broadly spaced  large dead "punky" pine logs.