Blue Ridge Oak (Hardwood) Forests Oak (Hardwood) Forests grow on a range of sites below 3,500 feet, from very dry to nearly mesic. Oaks, such as rock chestnut oak, white oak, southern red oak, northern red oak, and scarlet oak, are usually important, so these forests are known as oak forests, but on some sites white pine, hickories, red maple, tulip-tree, sourwood and black gum may be more abundant than the oaks.
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Indicator species: Black oak, White oak, Rock chestnut oak, Mockernut hickory, Pignut hickory; drier sites indicated by Blackjack oak, Pale/Sand hickory, and Post oak.
What's special: These are the "matrix" forests of the ecoregion: they blanket large areas of land, and so harbor the classic plants and animals of the Georgia Blue Ridge. These are the forests we see the most, and get to know best, in the Georgia mountains.
Related communities: Grades into mesic forests as sites get drier. Grades into Montane Oak at higher elevations.
Learn MORE HERE about plant adaptations in deciduous forests.
What's special: These are the "matrix" forests of the ecoregion: they blanket large areas of land, and so harbor the classic plants and animals of the Georgia Blue Ridge. These are the forests we see the most, and get to know best, in the Georgia mountains.
Related communities: Grades into mesic forests as sites get drier. Grades into Montane Oak at higher elevations.
Learn MORE HERE about plant adaptations in deciduous forests.
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Plants
Click on a plant name to see images. Plants are listed in order by scientific name. Trees Red maple Acer rubrum Black (sweet) birch Betula lenta Mockernut hickory Carya tomentosa Pignut hickory Carya glabra American chestnut (sprouts) Castanea dentata Flowering dogwood Cornus florida Tulip-tree Liriodendron tulipifera Fraser magnolia Magnolia fraseri Black gum Nyssa sylvatica Sourwood Oxydendrum arboreum White pine Pinus strobus White oak Quercus alba Scarlet oak Quercus coccinea Rock chestnut oak Quercus montana Northern red oak Quercus rubra Black locust Robinia pseudoacacia Shrubs and Vines Sweet shrub Calycanthus floridus Whorled wild yam Dioscorea quaternata Strawberry-bush Euonymus americanus Black huckleberry Gaylussacia baccata Bear huckleberry Gaylussacia ursina Mountain laurel Kalmia latifolia Buffalo-nut Pyrularia pubera Flame azalea Rhododendron calendulaceum Great rhododendron Rhododendron maximum Gorge rhododendron Rhododendron minus Hillside blueberry Vaccinium pallidum Deerberry Vaccinium stamineum Ground Layer Wildflowers Southern harebell Campanula divaricata Pipsissewa Chimaphila maculata (a sub-shrub) Green-and-gold Chrysogonum virginianum Speckled wood-lily Clintonia umbellulata Pink lady's-slipper Cypripedium acaule Trailing arbutus Epigaea repens (a sub-shrub) White heart-leaved aster Eurybia divaricata Galax Galax urceolata Downy rattlesnake-orchid Goodyera pubescens Quaker ladies Houstonia caerulea Summer bluet Houstonia purpurea Naked tick trefoil Hylodesmum nudiflorum Whorled loosestrife Lysimachia quadrifolia Solomon's plume Maianthemum racemosum Indian cucumber root Medeola virginiana Indian pipes Monotropa uniflora Carolina phlox Phlox carolina Solomon's seal Polygonatum biflorum Catesby's trillium Trillium catesbaei Perfoliate bellwort Uvularia perfoliata Ferns Hay-scented fern Dennstaedtia punctilobula Christmas fern Polystichum acrosticoides New York fern Thelypteris noveboracensis |
Representative Trees, in order by scientific name.Representative Shrubs in order by scientific name.Representative Wildflowers in order by scientific name |
