North Garden Prickly Pear Habitat

Approximation #1

Lat/Long.:

37.9322, -78.6489

Elevation: 800'

Aspect:

Southeast facing, sparse woods.

Soils:

Soil/silt trapped in small cracks in the granulite outcrop provide the nutrients needed.

Bedrock:

Blue Ridge basement complex. Biotite-Muscovite Leucogranite Gneiss, Grenville-age rocks (1-1.1 billion years old).

note: there is a seam of Meta-gabbro very nearby; it is an ultra-mafic rock, and is the same outcrop that provides the substrate at UVA in Charlottesville.

Conditions:

drought conditions have persisted for over a month

. The summer saw

69 days with 90-degree-or-higher temperatures. Since August 1st, we have received not more than 1 inch of rai

n.

Trees and shrubs:

• mockernut hickory

• pignut hickory

• chestnut oak

• shortleaf pine

• eastern red cedar

• black locust

• pawlonia

• ailanthus

• Virginia pine

• black cherry

• redbud

• dogwood

• serviceberry

• huckleberry species

***Abundant saplings of redbud, chestnut oak, ailanthus, and cedar.

Other plants:

• Eastern prickly pear

Unidentified:

• a woody tick trefoil species

• raspberry species

• Eupatorium species