Characteristic Plants Oak - Pine Forest These plants are frequently found in this community type. Those with an asterisk are often diagnostic of this community. State Rank S5 Their canopy is more open and the dwarf shrub layer much more well developed Canopy Community Description (usually >15% cover of dwarf shrubs). Red American beech* This type is a closed canopy forest (>75% Oak - Northern Hardwoods - White Pine Balsam fir* closure) in which red oak or a mixture Forests occur on more mesic sites and Eastern hemlock Paper birch of oak and white pine (rarely red spruce feature at least 10% cover of other tolerant Oak – Pine Forest or hemlock) dominate. Red maple (up hardwoods (beech, sugar maple, white ash, Red maple* Red oak* to 30% cover) and paper birch (up to or ironwood). White Oak - Red Oak Forests The community provides nesting habitat Red spruce 15% cover) can be common in younger contain white oak in the canopy. for a large number of passerine bird species White pine* stands. Striped maple is a common such as the wood thrush, scarlet tanager, subcanopy associate; several other shrubs Conservation, Wildlife, and ovenbird, and pine warbler. Sapling/shrub may be frequent. The herb layer is usually Management Considerations Beaked hazelnut* Black huckleberry* Oak - Pine Forest somewhat sparse (<30% cover), and Most Oak - Pine Forests in Maine are on Mature stands with a high proportion of features bracken fern, lowbush blueberry, land that was once cleared or pastured. The oaks offer excellent potential sites for cavity Witch-hazel* and various herbaceous species; dwarf known sites are subject to fragmentation by nesters. The state rare red-winged sallow Dwarf Shrub shrubs contribute 0-15% cover. The herb timber harvesting, clearing for agriculture, moth uses red oak as one of its host plants Black huckleberry* layer often includes forest species such and residential development. Fire or and may be found in this community. Lowbush blueberry* as wild-oats and Indian cucumber-root other soil disturbance may be important in Historical butterfly species like the persius Herb that are seldom found in more open Oak maintaining this type. duskywing and the frosted elfin were known Big-leaved aster* - Pine Woodlands. Bryoids are sparse and from oak-pine forests and woodlands in Bracken fern* are almost exclusively mosses rather than southern Maine where their host plants, Canada mayflower liverworts or lichens. Location Map wild indigo and wild lupine, were formerly Starflower present. Similarly, this community type Bryoid Soil and Site Characteristics historically included chestnut as a canopy Dicranum moss Sites occur on lower to mid-slopes or constituent and may include the chestnut Large hair-cap moss occasionally upper slopes on low hills. clearwing moth, which uses chestnut as a Slopes are typically 10-25% and aspect host plant. Associated Rare Plants varies. Sites are characterized by well American chestnut drained mineral soils that are somewhat Distribution Mountain laurel shallow (10-50 cm to obstruction), usually Extending southward and southwestward Small whorled pogonia sandy loams or loamy sands, and acidic from southern and central Maine; this is Variable sedge (pH ~5.0). common, matrix-forming forest type in Wild indigo the Eastern Diagnostics Broadleaf Associated Rare Animals These are more or less closed canopy Forest Red-winged sallow forests with dominance of red oak or red Province. Whip-poor-will oak - white pine mixture (occasionally red spruce or hemlock replace white pine); Landscape there is an absence or at least low cover Pattern: Large Examples on Conservation of northern hardwood species and other Patch; formerly Lands You Can Visit oaks. a matrix type • Bald Mountain, Little Concord Pond in southern Public Lands – Oxford Co. Similar Types Maine and • Sebago Lake State Park – Cumberland Oak - Pine Woodlands are similar and lower New Co. sometimes contiguous with this type. Small Whorled Pogonia England.

Maine Natural Areas Program