Plants and Animals
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Plants
The tallest trees in the Acidic Oak - Hickory Forest are chestnut oaks, pignut hickories, and other oaks and hickories. Shrubs include hillside blueberry. The lowest layer of plants may be very sparse, but can contain a lot of species, including poverty oatgrass, smooth forked nailwort, and dwarf cinquefoil.
Canopy Trees
The trees whose crowns intercept most of the sunlight in a forest stand. The uppermost layer of a forest.
- black oak
- chestnut oak
- mockernut hickory
- northern red oak
- pignut hickory
- white oak
- red maple (occasional)
- Virginia pine (occasional)
Understory Trees
Small trees and young specimens of large trees growing beneath the canopy trees. Also called the subcanopy.
- common serviceberry
- red maple
- white ash
- black cherry (occasional)
- flowering dogwood (occasional)
Shrubs, Saplings, and Vines
Shrubs, juvenile trees and vines at the right height to give birds and others a perch up off the ground but below the trees.
Low Plants (Field Layer)
Plants growing low to the ground. This includes small shrubs and tree seedlings.
- American burnweed
- American hog-peanut
- American pennyroyal
- Bosc’s witchgrass
- climbing false buckwheat
- common dittany
- dwarf cinquefoil
- eastern bottlebrush grass
- elmleaf goldenrod
- heartleaf skullcap
- hoary mountainmint
- longleaf summer bluet
- oval-leaf sedge
- Pennsylvania sedge
- woman’s tobacco
- poverty oatgrass
- cypress panicgrass
- smooth forked nailwort
- wavyleaf aster
- white snakeroot
Non-Native Invasive Plant Species
Although the dry and somewhat infertile soil in the Acidic Oak - Hickory Forest is not particularly welcoming to non-native plants, several have made inroads, including garlic mustard* and tree-of-heaven*. See Ecological Threats for more.
Animals
Even though natural communities aren’t named after animals, animals do play a crucial role in maintaining natural communities. Plants and animals need each other. To name just a few examples, plants provide food and habitat for animals, and animals help plants reproduce by spreading pollen and seeds. To learn more, see The Role of Animals in Natural Communities in Ecology Basics.
Check out iNaturalist to see photos of animals (and plants!) that people have seen in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.