Sugar Maple Forest These Plants Are Frequently Found in This Community Type

Characteristic Plants Sugar Maple Forest These plants are frequently found in this community type. Those with an asterisk are often diagnostic of this community. State Rank: S4 as noted above, but lacks richer site species characteristic of Maple – Basswood – Ash Canopy Community Description Forest. American beech The canopy is dominated by sugar maple, Sugar maple* with white ash a frequent associate Similar Types White Ash* in southern or central Maine. Other These forests are intermediate in nutrient Yellow birch associated hardwood species include regime and composition between Maple Sapling/shrub yellow birch and striped maple. Beech – Basswood – Ash Forests and Beech – Alternate-leaved dogwood may be present but is less abundant Birch – Maple Forests. Maple – Basswood Red Elderberry than in Beech – Birch – Maple Forests. – Ash Forests are typically small-patch types Striped maple* Sugar Maple Forest Conifers are usually sparse. The closed- in ravines or coves, with more restrictive Sugar maple* canopy forest has little to moderate rich-soil indicators such as basswood, Yellow birch shrub cover, moderate to dense herb maidenhair fern, blue cohosh, broad- often occur on drier sites (e.g., ridgetops) Herb cover, and may have local carpets of sugar leaved sedge, plantain-leaved sedge, and and/or more acidic soils (e.g., granitic types Christmas fern maple seedlings. Characteristic shrubs Braun’s holly fern. Beech – Birch – Maple in Downeast Maine). Doll’s eyes* include alternate-leaved dogwood and Forests typically contain as much if not Jack in the pulpit red-elderberry. Typical herbs of this type, more beech than sugar maple and lack Conservation, Wildlife, and Round-leaved violet which are scarce or absent from beech- the diversity and abundance of rich site Management Considerations Sarsaparilla birch-maple forests, include jack-in-the- indicators. Beech – Birch – Maple Forests This forest type has been extensively Shining clubmoss* pulpit, doll’s eyes, round-leaved violet, harvested and managed in northern Spikenard* grape fern, zig-zag goldenrod, spikenard, Location Map Maine. Most management techniques Striped maple false Solomon’s seal, and long-stalked diverge from the natural gap pattern, which sedge. is at the scale of single trees or small groups Associated Rare Plants Semi-rich Northern Hardwood Forest of trees. Large (>100 acres) examples Autumn coral-root Soil and Site Characteristics reflecting only natural disturbance are Broad beech fern These northern hardwood forests occur scarce statewide, and intact examples in Cut-leaved toothwort at moderate elevations on slightly central and southern Maine tend to be Nodding pogonia enriched, moderately drained soils smaller and more isolated. Tall white violet -- often silt loams derived from pelite or other subacidic bedrock. They This type provides nesting habitat for a Associated Rare Animals may occur as inclusions within typical large number of passerine bird species, Early hairstreak northern hardwood forests, or, in such as the black-throated green warbler, northern Maine, they may occur over rose-breasted grosbeak, scarlet tanager, larger areas (hundreds of acres) and be ovenbird, and a large proportion of the Examples on Conservation the locally dominant northern hardwood global population of black-throated blue Lands You Can Visit forest. warblers. • Deboullie Ponds Public Lands – Aroostook Co. Diagnostics Distribution • Squa Pan Public Lands – Aroostook Sugar maple is dominant or co-dominant New England - Adirondack Province Co. (>50% cover) with yellow birch or white and Laurentian Mixed Forest Province. • White Mountain National Forest ash. Conifers and beech each form Extends east, west, and north from Maine. – Oxford Co. less than 25% cover. The herbaceous layer includes at least several species Landscape Pattern: Small to Large Patch indicative of moderate soil enrichment, Maine Natural Areas Program.

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