Northern Ontario Plant Database

Northern Ontario Vegetation Type (V-type)

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NW-V32: Jack Pine - Black Spruce / Ericaceous Shrub / Feathermoss

Summary: A conifer stand dominated by jack pine and black spruce in the canopy; white spruce and balsam fir, if present, are minor components in the overstorey. Black spruce dominates the regeneration. The understorey is open, with only an occasional mountain alder standing above the blueberries and Labrador tea of the low shrub layer.

The relatively poor herb layer contains creeping snowberry and most of the characteristic boreal forest species, except starflower. The forest floor is covered by a continuous carpet of feathermosses.

Soil & Ecosite Types: The Jack Pine-Black Spruce/Ericaceous Shrub/Feathermoss Vegetation Type (NW-V32) occurs on Ecosite Types ES 20 (Spruce-Pine/Feathermoss, fresh, sandy-coarse loamy soil), ES 25 (Pine-Spruce/ Feathermoss, fresh, silty soil), ES 26 (Spruce-Pine/Feathermoss, fresh, fine loamy-clayey soil), and ES 31 (Spruce-Pine/Feathermoss, moist, silty-clayey soil). It occurs on dry to fresh, coarse-textured, mineral soils (including S1, S2, S3, S6, SS6, and SS8).

Note: The percentage of sample plots that contained overstorey tree species is given in square brackets after each scientific name. Other species are listed in order of frequency, according to the NW-FEC manual.

Trees:

overstorey:

jack pine (Pinus banksiana) [10]
black spruce (Picea mariana) [10]
white spruce (Picea glauca) [1]
balsam fir (Abies balsamea) [1]

regeneration:

black spruce (Picea mariana)

Shrubs:

tall shrubs:

mountain alder (Alnus viridis subsp. crispa)

low shrubs:

velvetleaf blueberry (Vaccinium myrtilloides)
lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium)
Labrador tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum)

Dwarf Shrubs & Herbs:

dwarf shrubs:

twinflower (Linnaea borealis)
creeping snowberry (Gaultheria hispidula)

forbs:

wild lily-of-the-valley (Maianthemum canadense)
bunchberry (Cornus canadensis)
bluebead lily (Clintonia borealis)

Bryophytes:

Schreber's feathermoss (Pleurozium schreberi)
wavyleaf moss (Dicranum polysetum)
plume moss (Ptilium crista-castrensis)
stairstep moss (Hylocomium splendens)

Lichens:

gray reindeer lichen (Cladina rangiferina)