Hemlock Forest – 10/11/20
To get to my phenology site, you have to walk into Centennial Woods and take trails that are trending to the North until you get to a trail which follows the forest edge, by the side of a wetland meadow. My site is located in a clearing surrounded by hemlocks. If you East from my site, you can see the marshy wetland. I chose this site because it is a place I often go to meditate. I also recently wrote about hemlock forests in my Environmental Studies class, so I am curious to learn more about them and watch how they change through the seasons. I am also interested in seeing how the wetland changes as we transition to winter.
The ground within the clearing is mostly packed soil sprinkled with eastern white pine needle deadfall. The forest surrounding the clearing is made up of hemlocks, yellow birch, eastern white pine, and a few red maples. The understory mostly consisted of ferns and barberry. It is common for ferns to grow in the understory of hemlock forests, so what I observed fits with the normal trends for this type of forest community.
Sources:
Eastern Hemlock. Virginia Tech Dendrology. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://dendro.cnre.vt.edu/dendrology/syllabus/factsheet.cfm?ID=116
Video about barberry made by UVM students, provided by Walt and Chris: https://bb.uvm.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=_148708_1&content_id=_3464662_1