9. Site Description: 



Henrytown Savannah is best described as an upland longleaf pine 

 ( Pinus palustris ) savannah. The site is not typical of extensive 

 savannah sites within the region, which are usually found on Pleistocene 

 backbarrier flats, but rather, is located on a gentle, 2 to 10 per 

 cent slope. It is further notable that the savannah is not ecotonal, 

 at least in the usual sense of the word, between the pocosin community 

 which borders it to the south and west (downslope), and the upland 

 sand ridge community which borders it to the north and east (upslope), 

 as the drier portions of the site are at its southern end, and the 

 savannah becomes more mesic in nature moving upslope, 



Longleaf pine is the ever present canopy species. Downslope there 

 is no BUbcanopy or shrub layer, and the open herbaceous layer is domi- 

 nated by wire-grass ( Aristida stricta ) and xeric herbs alternating with 

 patches of bare white sand. Upslope, a low shrub layer approximately 

 0,5 to 1 m in height is present, dominated by a mixture of "pineland" 

 shrubs, especially dwairf huckleberry ( Gaylussacia dumosa ) , squaw-huckle- 

 berry ( Vaccinium stamineum ) , dwarf blueberry (V. tenellum ), and bitter 

 gallberry ( Ile'x~glabra ) . Almost always creeping blueberry (V. 

 crassifolium ) and wire-grass form a carpet beneath the shrub layer. 



Although the longleaf pines of the canopy are generally small or 

 medium sized, mature round timber "flat-tops" are present at the site, 

 indicating that recent cutting of mature pines has not occured here, 

 as it has on many adjacent sitee. Abundant evidences of past fires, 

 such as chaurred trunks and stumps, are present at the site. 



