Northern Ontario Plant Database

Northern Ontario Vegetation Type (V-type)

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C-V31: Red Pine - White Pine - Jack Pine - Largetooth Aspen - White Pine Shrub - Wintergreen

Summary: A pine-dominated stand, with red pine and white pine occurring most frequently, followed by jack pine and largetooth aspen. The subcanopy is populated by a variety of hardwood and conifer species, but none occurs with more than 10% frequency. Red pine and jack pine are missing from the understory layers and regeneration is dominated by red maple, white pine, balsam fir, and red oak, indicating this stand type is also a successional phase. The shrub layer is dominated by beaked hazel, smooth and redtwig serviceberry, lowbush and velvetleaf blueberry and Canada fly honeysuckle.

The herb layer is dominate by several low shrubs and forbs, including wintergreen, wild lily-of-the-valley, largeleaf aster, wild sarsaparilla, as well as mountain rice grass and bracken fern. Sweet fern, prince's pine, goldenrod, and cow-wheat are characteristic of this forest type, but occur with only 30-50% frequency. Schreber's feathermoss is common on the forest floor, but wavyleaf dicranum may also be present.

This vegetation type is similar to C-V29 and C-V30, however C-V-31is characterized by the common presence of red oak and beech in the regeneration, but generally lacks bunchberry and starflower.

Soil & Ecosite Types: The Red Pine-White Pine-Jack Pine-Largetooth Aspen-White Pine Shrub-Wintergreen Vegetation Type (C-V31) occurs most commonly on dry to moderately fresh (S1) and fresh to very fresh (S5), coarse or medium sandy soils. This vegetation type was described mainly from Site Region 5E, including Site Districts 5E-10 (northern Algonquin Park area) and 5E-7 (east Georgian Bay); less than 10% of sample plots occurred within Site Region 4E. Like C-V29 and C-V30, this vegetation type can be found on ecosite types C-ES 11.1 (White Pine-Red Pine, dry to moderately fresh), C-ES 11.2 (White Pine-Red Pine, fresh to moist), C-ES 12.1 (Red Pine, dry to moderately fresh), and C-ES 21.2 (Red Pine, fresh to moist).

Note: In sample plots, species listed below occurred with 50% frequency or more, except for those in square brackets, which occurred with 30-49% frequency.

Trees:

overstorey

red pine (Pinus resinosa)
white pine (Pinus strobus)
[jack pine (Pinus banksiana)]
[trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides)]

subcanopy

[no species occur more than 10% of the time]

regeneration

red maple (Acer rubrum)
white pine (Pinus strobus)
balsam fir (Abies balsamea)
red oak (Quercus rubra)
[beech (Fagus grandifolia)]
[white spruce (Picea glauca)]
[white birch (Betula papyrifera)]

Shrubs:

tall shrubs

beaked hazel (Corylus cornuta)
smooth serviceberry (Amelanchier laevis)
redtwig serviceberry (Amelanchier sanginea)

low shrubs

lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium)
velvetleaf blueberry (Vaccinium myrtilloides)
Canada fly honeysuckle (Lonicera canadensis)
[bush honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera)]
[sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina)]

Dwarf Shrubs and Herbs:

dwarf shrubs

wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens)
[prince's pine (Chimaphila umbellata)]
[twinflower (Linnaea borealis)]

forbs

wild lily-of-the-valley (Maianthemum canadense)
largeleaf aster (Eurybia macrophylla)
wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis)
[cowwheat (Melampyrum lineare)]
[goldenrods (Solidago spp.)]

graminoids

mountain rice grass (Oryzopsis asperifolia)

Ferns and Fern Allies:

ferns

bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum)

Bryophytes:

Schreber's feathermoss (Pleurozium schreberi)
[wavyleaf moss (Dicranum polysetum)]

Lichens:

[no species occur more than 30% of the time]