bitter gallberry ( Ilex glabra ) , low red bay (Persea borbonia ) , 

 low sweet bay ( Magnolia virginiana ) and loblolly bay. All 

 these physical parameters fall within Otte's proposed pond 

 pine woodland criteria. The community is characterized as 

 Pinus serotina/ mixed pocosin shrubs//Smilax laurifolia (pond 

 pine/mixed pocosin shruhs//greenbrier; CT 2) . 



Although tall, the pond pines here have a very character- 

 istic gnarled and twisted growth form, with many dead trunks 

 present, killed by fire and possibly other agents. Recent 

 fire in the vicinity of this old-growth pond pine stand has 

 created a mosaic of different communities, most having large, 

 isolated individual pond pines which seem to be the remnants 

 of denser stands killed by fire. 



Immediately adjacent to the old-growth pond pine woodland, 

 across Loop Road, is a large area which burned about ten years 

 ago, based on annual ring counts of sapling pond pines. Loop 

 Road apparently acted as a firebreak, and is now at the boundary 

 between the two abruptly different communities. The ten-year- 

 old burn is dominated by zenobia ( Zenobia pulverulenta ) in 

 slightly lower areas and a mixture of bitter gallberry, titi 

 and other shrubs on relatively higher parts of the site; with 

 a dense regeneration of young pond pine saplings about eight 

 feet tall throughout the shrub layer. Also present are ex- 

 tremely scattered mature pond pines which survived the last 

 severe fire. No community type is designated for this loca- 

 tion, which demonstrates the early stages of secondary suc- 

 cession to pond pine woodland after very severe fire. Here 

 the pond pine canopy was removed, completely altering the 

 physiognomy of the community, but a young pond pine stand 

 is already well-established on the site. Presumably the 

 burned area can support a pond pine woodland community similar 

 to that immediately across Loop Road, and will be occupied by 

 the same community barring another killing fire. 



Between the physiognomic extremes of old growth and re- 

 cent burn is another and very common vegetation type associated 

 with the Croatan muck soils in the Northwest Pocosin. This 

 commonly encountered vegetation type is termed pond pine 

 forest in Otte's classification. His criteria for this 

 type are: one to two feet of sandy peat, water table in 

 underlying mineral sediments much of the year, shrub height 

 10 to 20 feet, and pond pine height under 50 feet with canopy 

 closed. 



Much of the pond pine forest in Northwest Pocosin is co- 

 dominated by loblolly bay (in addition to pond pine) , with 



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