At the other extreme 

 from that soggy habitat 

 are shale barrens, dry, ex- 

 posed places where 

 crumbling rock, sear- 

 ing summer tempera- 

 tures, and acidic soils 

 limit growth to a few 

 well-adapted species. Shale 

 barrens are known only 

 from a few areas in Mary- 

 land, Pennsylvania, Vir- 

 ginia, and West Virginia. 

 One is the Browns Hol- 

 low Shale Barren, on 

 Massanutten Mountain a 

 few hundred feet south of 

 the visitor center. Steep 

 south- and east-facing shale 

 slopes rise as high as 120 feet 

 above Browns Run, a stream that 

 flows through the hollow. 



Robert H. Mohlenbrock is a distin- 

 guished professor emeritus oj plant biology at 

 Southern Illinois I University Carbondale. 



VISITOR INFORMATION 



Lee Ranger District 

 George Washington and 



Jefferson National Forests 

 109 Molineu Road 

 Edinburg, VA 22824 

 540-984-4101 

 www.fs.fed.us/r8/gwj7lee/ 



is a loop that follows one ridge and 

 backtracks along the other. 



Near the midpoint of the moun- 

 tain, east of Edinburg, my wife Bev- 

 erly and I explored the Peters Mill 

 Run Trail. (That trail, it's worth cau- 

 tioning, is open to all-terrain and 

 off-highway vehicles.) Along it we 

 came to a boggy area kept wet by 

 seepage from the adjacent hillside. 

 We were careful to observe it from 

 the periphery, both because some 

 plants rare for the region grow there, 

 and because the black muck would 

 have made for hard walking. In one 

 place the boggy soil is four feet deep, 

 and it trembles if you walk on it. 

 Such boggy areas, more common far 

 to the north of Virginia, are called 

 muskegs, from a Native American 

 word that means "grassy bog." Vir- 

 ginia botanists are quite familiar with 

 this one, locally known as the Mas- 

 sanutten Muskeg. It harbors several 

 northern plant species that here reach 

 their southern limits. 



Habitats 



Dry forest Common trees include 

 black gum, black oak, blackjack oak, 

 black walnut, eastern red cedar, 

 northern red oak, pignut hickory, rock 

 chestnut oak, slippery elm, sassafras, 

 Virginia pine, white ash, white oak, 

 white pine, and wild black cherry. 

 Among the smaller trees and shrubs 

 are black haw, black raspberry, com- 

 mon blackberry, deerberry, hillside 

 blueberry, and mountain laurel. Wild- 

 flowers often present are common 

 blue heart-leaved aster, goat's rue, 

 hemp dogbane, oxeye daisy, trailing 

 arbutus, wrinkle-leaved goldenrod, 

 and yellow wild indigo. 



Riparian forest Mountain maple, sug- 

 ar maple, sweet birch, and yellow 

 poplar (also called tulip tree) are the 

 dominant trees, rising above a middle 

 forest layer of downy serviceberry 

 and redbud and a ground layer of 



bland sweet cicely, mayapple, pink la- 

 dy's slipper, large twayblade, white 

 avens, and wild geranium. The 

 wettest areas support box elder, 

 northern hackberry, red maple, and 

 shellbark hickory, along with the 

 shrubby spicebush and such wild- 

 flowers as American water-willow, 

 clearweed, dwarf crested iris, fringed 

 loosestrife, southern three-lobed 

 bedstraw, and Virginia dayflower. 



Muskeg Black ash, unusual for the 

 mountains of Virginia, grows with red 

 maple, sweet birch, and yellow 

 poplar. Shrubs include such wetland 

 species as arrowwood, ninebark, 

 spicebush, and winterberry, as well as 

 species that prefer drier habitats, 

 such as American hazelnut, fringe 

 tree, pawpaw, and witch hazel. 

 Bog-loving orchids thrive in the 

 muskeg. Among them are club-spur 



orchid, grass-pink, Loesel's tway- 

 blade, purple fringed orchid, ragged 

 fringed orchid, showy lady's slipper, 

 and yellow fringed orchid. Species 

 uncommon this far south are Ameri- 

 can golden saxifrage, marsh 

 marigold, meadow phlox, round- 

 leaved sundew, swamp lousewort, 

 and tawny cotton grass. Cinnamon 

 fern, lady fern, marsh fern, royal fern, 

 and shining club moss are among the 

 spore-producing plants in the bog. 



Shale barrens A sparse woodland of 

 eastern red cedar and Virginia pine 

 grows above the herbaceous plants. 

 Some of the latter are common, such 

 as little bluestem and Pennsylvania 

 sedge. Others are endemic to shale 

 barrens, such as shale barren golden- 

 rod, shale barren rock-cress, Virginia 

 whitehair leather flower, and white- 

 hair leather flower. 



May 2006 natuu.m HISTORY 



57 



