between them. The more vegetationally different communities were farther 
apart and the more similar ones closer together. 
The bulrush wetland community had a single species in common with the 
reed wetland community and nothing in common with any other. In addition, 
the reed wetland had a single species in common with one other community 
(sound-side disturbed-shrub). Thus these two communities had zero > 
Similarity values with most of the other delimited communities. The 
preliminary ordinations which were constructed with all stands had 
uninterpretable geometries. Therefore, these communities were omitted in 
order to produce the ordinations presented in this study. 
The distinctiveness of the foredune (x-y and y-z axis), sandgrass (x-y 
and x-z axis), sandgrass-buttonweed (x-z and y-z axis), sound-side 
disturbed-shrub (x-z and y-z axis), and sound-side shrub (x-y and y-z axis) 
communities was borne out by the ordination. However, each of these shared 
similarities with several other communities on the remaining axis: sandgrass 
on y-z axis, sandgrass-buttonweed on the x-y axis, sound-side disturbed- 
shrub on the x-y axis, and sound-side shrub on the x-z axis (sandgrass- 
buttonweed and sound-side disturbed on the x-y axis, foredune and sound-side 
shrub on the x-z axis, and sandgrass on the y-z axis). 
In contrast to the five clearly distinct communities previously 
noted, seven community types had strong similarities to each other. These 
seven can be further separated into two groups. First, the interdunal 
marsh, low dune grass, planted bitter panicum-planted American beachgrass, 
and roadside disturbed communities showed a strong similarity in all three 
ordination perspectives. Second, the oceanside intershrub and sound-side 
disturbed-herbaceous communities were separated from the former group on the 
x-z axis. This distinctiveness diminished on the x-y axis and totally dis- 
appeared on the y-z axis. 
d. Permanent Quadrats. Vegetation patterns of the permanent quadrats 
for this study and Levy (1976) are provided in Appendix C. The low dune 
grass quadrat 2 was not diagramed by Levy (1976), as it was void of vegeta- 
tion (Fig. C-9). Levy (1976) also omitted the three permanent quadrats 
located in the oceanside shrub community as they had 100 percent Myrtica 
pensylvanica coverage (Figs. C-19, C-21, and C-23). Reestablishment of the 
barren dune permanent quadrats was not required for this study. Appendix A 
lists separately the location of each quadrat's permanent survey marker. An 
error was detected in the distance of sound-side disturbed permanent quadrat 
1 from USACE survey marker 64 (as reported by Levy, 1976) and has been 
corrected in Appendix A. 
IV. DISCUSSION 
iho Floristics. 
The Asteraceae was represented by the most species, making up 13 
percent of the total flora. This compares with 13.5 percent Asteraceae 
found by Burk (1968) for the entire Outer Banks. The Poaceae made up 7 
percent. This compared with 16 percent for the Asteraceae and 19 percent 
for the Poaceae reported by Levy (1976). The reversal in order of 
importance for the two families appeared to reflect the present, more 
28 
