Generally, the mixed swamp forest sub- 

 canopy is not well developed, consisting of smaller 

 individuals of black gum and red maple with an oc- 

 casional sweet bay. The shrub layer is rather open 

 and generally consists of one or two species. A tali 

 layer of red bay is frequently present, ranging from 

 tall shrub to subcanopy height. The dominant low 

 shrubs are usually sweet pepperbush and fetterbush, 

 with scattered gallberry and highbush blueberry. 

 Fetterbush is less dense in mixed swamps than in 

 dense cedar stands. Ground cover is usually absent 

 except for Sphagnum mats. The ground surface 

 may be wet, with shallow standing water in scattered 

 depressions. Cypress knees and many fallen logs 

 add to the hummocky surface; however, the ground 

 surface of mixed swamp forests is more open than 

 that of pure cedar stands. 



No quantitative data are available on mixed 

 stands in which cedar is a codominant species. 

 However, unpublished field notes of L. Peacock and 

 M. Lynch (pers. comm.) describe several such sites. 

 At a site near Milltail Creek Lake, white cedar and 

 cypress form a closed canopy 21 to 27 m tall over a 

 second canopy of black gum with some red maple 

 and red bay about 12 m tall. Common shrubs 

 recorded are sweet pepperbush, fetterbush, and bit- 

 ter gallberry. Rotting stumps of cut cypress are com- 

 mon. Another mixed stand to the north, considered 

 representative, contains white cedar 21 to 24 m tall 

 with an average dbh range of 36 to 40 cm. The co- 

 dominant hardwood component consists of black 

 gum and red maple. Widely scattered hollow, old- 

 growth cypress protrude from the cedar-hardwood 

 canopy. Sweet bay, red bay, and red maple com- 

 pose the subcanopy. Peacock and Lynch (1982) 

 noted that sweet gallberry is more common at this 

 site than elsewhere. Other shrubs they noted were 

 fetterbush, maleberry {Lyonla ligustrina), bitter 

 gallberry, and blueberry. 



7.3.5 Unusual or Rare Plant Species 



To date, no rare plant species have been 

 found within the Atlantic white cedar associations of 

 the Dare mainland. The highly acidic and con- 

 tinuously saturated character of the substrate, 

 coupled with dense shade from the overstory and 

 shrub layers, limits the potential for a diversity of all 

 low-growing plants, as well as for unusual or rare 

 ones. The few herbaceous species that have been 

 found within Dare cedar forests are listed in Table 1 3. 



7.4 FAUNA 



The fauna of mainland Dare County 

 palustrine wetlands has been investigated only in 

 response to the major land alteration proposals of 



Table 13. Plant species characteristically as- 

 sociated with Atlantic white cedar wetlands in Dare 

 County, North Carolina. 



Canopy and subcanopy layer 

 Acer rubrum 

 Gordonia lasianthus 

 Magnolia virginiana 

 Nyssa sylvatica var. biflora 

 Persea borbonia 

 Pinus serotina 

 Pinus taeda 

 Taxodium distichum 



Shrub layer 



Amelanchier candensis 

 Clethra ainifolia 

 Cyrilla racemiflora 

 Gaylussacia frondosa 

 Ilex coriacea 

 Ilex glabra 

 Ilex opaca 



Leucothoe racemosa 

 Lyonla ligustrina 

 Lyonia lucida 

 Myrica cerifera 

 Myrica heterophylla 

 Smilax laurifolia 

 Smilax rotundifolia 

 Smilax walteri 

 Vaccinium fuscatum 

 Viburum nudum 



Herbaceous layer 



Mitchella repens 

 Osmunda regalis 

 Parthenocissus quinquefolia 

 Peltandra virginica 

 Rhus toxicodendron 

 Sphagnum sp. 

 Wooawardia areolata 

 Woodwardia virginica 



the past few years. Until recently, limited road access 

 to the interior of the peninsula and inhospitable con- 

 ditions have been major factors contributing to the 

 basic lack of understanding of the dynamics of these 

 unusual wetland habitats. A detailed summary of 

 existing data on the fauna of the Dare mainland was 

 prepared by the USFWS (Noffsinger et al. 1984) in a 

 Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act report. The only 

 additional source of information for the area is from 

 Clark etal. (1985). 



The studies of Potter (1 982a, b) ; Braswell and 

 Wiley (1982); and Peacock and Lynch (1982), com- 

 bining data on the fauna of both pure and mixed 

 cedar forests in Dare County, catalogue 24 mam- 

 malian, 4 herptile, and 52 resident and breeding bird 

 species (Appendix B and Table 14). 



The southeastern five-lined skink, ground 

 skink, and slimy salamander (Braswell and Wiley 

 1982), and carpenter frogs (Peacock and Lynch 

 1982) are the only herptiles thus far documented in 

 various undisturbed cedar associations. Only six 



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