Natural Communities of Virginia - Terrestrial System - Sandy Woodlands of the Coastal Plain & Outer Piedmont: Pine / Scrub Oak Sandhills

The Natural Communities of Virginia
Classification of Ecological Community Groups
SECOND APPROXIMATION (Version 2.2)

Pine / Scrub Oak Sandhills
Sand ridges of the southeastern Virginia Coastal Plain support pyrophytic mixed woodlands of pines, scrub oaks, ericaceous shrubs, and light-demanding herbaceous xerophytes. Communities in this group reach their northern range limit in Virginia, where they occur in small, highly localized patches. Similar vegetation ranges through the southeastern Coastal Plain to Texas. Suitable habitats are located primarily on slightly elevated sand deposits stretching along the eastern sides of the Blackwater and Nottoway Rivers in Sussex, Southampton, and Isle of Wight Counties and the City of Suffolk. Soils are coarse xeric sands, often overlying clay-rich subsoils that may perch water briefly and limit rooting depths. The original vegetation of these sites is presumed to have been composed of open overstories of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), perhaps in mixtures with pond pine (Pinus serotina) and loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) at the northern end of its range, with open understories of scrub oaks (Quercus spp.), patchy ericads, and areas of open sand with sparse herbaceous cover. Stand structure and successful reproduction of longleaf pine were presumably controlled by a natural regime of frequent low-intensity fires. Extant examples have been altered by heavy cutting and decades of fire exclusion. Longleaf pine has been almost entirely replaced by loblolly pine (Pinus taeda), and most stands are now quite closed. Various combinations of turkey oak (Quercus laevis), sand post oak (Quercus margaettiae), water oak (Quercus nigra), bluejack oak (Quercus incana), southern red oak (Quercus falcata), blackjack oak (Quercus marilandica), and sand hickory (Carya pallida) occur as overstory co-dominants and understory trees.

On the most elevated and xeric sites, frequent shrubs include poison oak (Toxicodendron pubescens), farkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum), deerberry (Vaccinium stamineum) and dwarf bayberry (Myrica cerifera var. pumila). Characteristic herbaceous xerophytes, which may be almost eliminated by canopy closure and accumulations of thick leaf litter, include silver bluestem (Andropogon ternarius), woolly three-awn grass (Aristida lanosa), hairsedge (Bulbostylis ciliatifolia var. ciliatifolia), grass-like roselings (Callisia graminea), spurge-nettle (Cnidoscolus stimulosus), pineland tick-trefoil (Desmodium strictum), wild ipecac (Euphorbia ipecacuanhae), sundial lupine (Lupinus perennis), October-flower (Polygonella polygama), wavy-leaf noseburn (Tragia urens), and Baldwin's nailwort (Paronychia baldwinii ssp. riparia).

On sandy flats associated with the sandhills, soils may have seasonally perched water tables but are primarily well-drained and dry for substantial periods of the year. Here, the best extant fragments are dominated by mixed stands of longleaf, loblolly, and pond pines, with a scattered understory of turkey oak. Dense, mostly ericaceous shrub layers of sheep-laurels (Kalmia angustifolia and Kalmia carolina), huckleberries (Gaylussacia frondosa, Gaylussacia dumosa var. dumosa, and Gaylussacia baccata), staggerbush (Lyonia mariana), small black blueberry (Vaccinium tenellum), creeping blueberry (Vaccinium crassifolium), inkberry (Ilex glabra), Canada serviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis), and giant cane (Arundinaria gigantea ssp. tecta) are characteristic. Herbs are generally sparse, but include bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum var. pseudocaudatum), pixie-moss (Pyxidanthera barbulata var. barbulata), chaffheads (Carphephorus bellidifolius and Carphephorus tomentosus), and fasciculate beakrush (Rhynchospora fascicularis var. distans).

Despite past and ongoing disturbances, pine / scrub oak sandhills are important communities for conservation and restoration in Virginia because of their regional rarity. Virginia's examples lack wiregrass (Aristida stricta and Aristida beyrichiana) and other pyrophytic grasses characteristic of similar communities further south and are thus thought to represent a rare compositional variant. Stands at Blackwater Ecological Preserve (near Zuni, Isle of Wight County) and the adjacent DCR Antioch Pines Natural Area Preserve are being managed with prescribed burning, but the remaining occurrences are in critical need of protection and restoration.

References: Frost and Musselman (1987), Plocher (1999).

Click on the images below to open a larger image in a separate window.

	Longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), giant cane (Arundinaria gigantea ssp. tecta , in foreground), and huckleberries (Gaylussacia spp., with red foliage) at Blackwater Ecological Preserve, Isle of Wight County. Photo © Gary P. Fleming.
	Prescribed burning is being used in Virginia to restore Pine / Scrub Oak Sandhills, which originally developed under a regime of frequent, low intensity fires. Blackwater Ecological Preserve, Isle of Wight County. Photo: Sandra Y. Erdle.

REPRESENTATIVE COMMUNITY TYPES:
A single community type has been classified based on limited data from two Virginia sites. Additional plot data from several more xeric, elevated sandhill sites have not yet analyzed and appear to represent a different, albeit disturbed, vegetation type. The relationship of Virginia sandhill vegetation to multiple USNVC associations ascribed to northeastern North Carolina and Virginia is unclear and needs further study. Click on any highlighted CEGL code below to view the global USNVC description provided by NatureServe Explorer.

Pinus palustris – (Pinus serotina) / Quercus laevis / Gaylussacia frondosa – Gaylussacia dumosa – Kalmia angustifolia Woodland
Longleaf Pine / Scrub Oak Sandhill (Northern Type)
USNVC: = CEGL003592, in part; = CEGL003647, in part
Global/State Ranks: G2/S1

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The Natural Communities of Virginia Classification of Ecological Community Groups SECOND APPROXIMATION (Version 2.2)

The Natural Communities of Virginia
Classification of Ecological Community Groups
SECOND APPROXIMATION (Version 2.2)