My spot on Lone Rock Point can be described as a limestone bluff cedar-pine natural community. These are communities that are shaped by the limestone and dolostone bedrock that lies under a very thin layer of soil. As mentioned in previous posts, the primary vegetation at my place are northern white cedars with a sparse understory aside from moss and lichen species on the exposed rocks.

Biofinder identifies the limestone bluff cedar-pine forest on Lone Rock Point as a rare natural community.

On the walk to my site, I travel through a transition hardwood limestone forest community. This community is mainly composed of maple, oak and pine species and is commonly found adjacent to limestone bluff cedar-pine forests.

For the first time, I used Biofinder to better understand the rarity of my place. Surprisingly, all of Lone Rock Point was covered in overlapping yellow circles on Biofinder showing that it is a site inhabited by multiple rare plant species. It is interesting that the north shoreline is entirely outlined. This might suggest that there is a plant species in this area that only lives in limestone bluff-cedar pine communities.

Aside from the natural communities layer shown above, rare plant species was the only other layer in the species and community scale components category that was found at my place.