Figure 17. — The upland hardwood type, characteristic of the ridge tops, 

 contains a high proportion of chestnut oak, scarlet oak, and dead chestnut. 

 This stand of one-log trees is at 3, 500 feet elevation. 



Shortleaf pine is the major forest type in the piedmont 

 (fig. 18). About half of its 2.3 million acres in the pied- 

 mont is stocked chiefly with shortleaf pine, generally of 

 old-field origin. On the remaining half the pine is mixed 

 with white, black, southern red, and scarlet oaks, yellow 

 poplar, and other hardwoods. Eastern red cedar often 

 forms a thin understory in these mixed stands. On the 

 eastern margin of the type, loblolly pine merges with the 

 shortleaf and on the western border there is an infiltration 

 ol Virginia pine. In the mountains shortleaf pine is associ- 

 ated chiefly with Virginia pine, red oaks, white oaks, and 

 chestnut. The relatively few scattered stands of this type 

 in the Coastal Plain resemble in composition those in 

 the piedmont. 



Most of the bottom-land hardwood type is located in 

 the Coastal Plain, along the rivers, smaller streams, and in 

 the broad swamps. The mixed hardwoods typical of most 



ct the type contain a high proportion of sweetgum and 

 black and water tupelo; the tupelos often form a distinct 

 subtype. Cypress occurs sparingly in the deeper swamps, 

 mostly along the Roanoke and Chowan Rivers. In Dare, 

 Tyrrell, and Gates Counties, Atlantic white-cedar is found 

 in almost pure stands. 



The pond pine type is restricted to the swamps and 

 pocosins of the tidewater area (fig. 19), occupying about 

 one-fifth of the forest land in the Coastal Plain. Stands of 

 pond pine are usually thinly stocked and contain only a 

 small admixture of other species. On some sites the trees 

 are flat-topped and short-boled. In Dare, Tyrrell and 

 Hyde Counties, particularly, most of the pond pine has 

 been destroyed by severe fires and the land supports only a 

 dense cover of brush with an occasional pond pine tree 

 indicating the original forest cover. Locally these devas- 

 tated areas are called "lights" or "open ground." 



Figure 18. — The shortleaf pine type occupies more than 3 million acres, 

 three-fourths of it in the piedmont. This mature old-field stand is too 

 limby f or good-quality saw timber. 



20 



