Credits

Created by Virginia Pellington, Christina Prehn, and Robert Copus, Explore Natural Communities Interns Summer 2016, NatureServe.

Music: Languidity, by purple planet music (purple-planet.com ). Licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0.

Photos: Dry-Mesic Chestnut Oak - Northern Red Oak Forest on the left and Chestnut Oak / Mountain Laurel Forest on the right, by Milo Pyne, courtesy of NatureServe. Licensed under Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0.

Transcript

Podcast time: 2:27 minutes

According to Chinese philosophy, the yin and yang are interconnected forces that complement each other. In the natural world, you can see examples of the yin and yang all around you. On the blue blazed trail at Maryland Heights, two seemingly similar communities come together right beneath your feet. But, a closer look reveals that they are quite different, yet complementary.

On the upslope side of the trail grows a natural community called Chestnut Oak / Mountain Laurel Forest. This community provides essential nutrients and minerals to its complementary natural community downslope of the trail called Dry-Mesic Chestnut Oak - Northern Red Oak Forest. Here’s how it works: Uphill the terrain is convex. Over long periods of time, rainfall washes the soil downhill into the slightly bowl-shaped—or concave—landscape below. This creates a thicker, slightly better soil downslope. This is why we find two perfectly unique plant communities side-by-side. The forest above is drier and nutrient-poor, where only a few species can survive, while the forest below can support a greater diversity of species and looks much greener in summer. Chestnut oak  trees are major players in both natural communities, though; this shows just how unique this tree is! Even though it grows best in low-sloped terrains with well-drained soils, it is perfectly suited to surviving in harsher, ridge-like conditions as well. 

The slightly better soils of the downslope Dry-Mesic Chestnut Oak - Northern Red Oak Forest allow for another, more sensitive plant to grow—the American witch-hazel ! Witch-hazel blooms with beautiful yellow, streamer-like flowers in late autumn or early winter, making it one of the few plants with color during this cold time of year. Once the flowers die off, seeds form. At the end of the following summer, this shrub forcibly flings its seeds up to 20 feet to sprout into new plants. 

This plant is also known for its use as an astringent, healing a variety of ailments. However, witch-hazel must be processed in order to maximize its healing properties, so please don’t leave the trail and harm these plants. Leave the witch hazel to complement the natural community it grows in.

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