Flora, Plant Communities, and Soils of a Significant Natural Area in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain (Craven County, North Carolina)

Abstract

Cool Springs Environmental Education Center (CSEEC), owned by Weyerhaeuser Company, includes a 591 ha State Significant Natural Area. It is located in Craven County, North Carolina, in the floristically rich Atlantic Coastal Plain. A comprehensive inventory of the vascular flora at CSEEC has documented the occurrence of approximately 567 specific and sub-specific taxa and 303 genera in 118 plant families as well as populations of the Atlantic Coastal Plain endemics Litsea aestivalis (L.) Fern. (Pondspice) and Solidago villosicarpa LeBlond (Coastal Goldenrod). Twenty distinct plant community types were identified including the uncommon Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris P. Mill) Woodland, Taxodium distichum (L.) L.C. Richard (Bald Cypress—Tupelo Gum) — Nyssa aquatica L. (Swamp Tupelo) Swamp, a number of botanically heterogeneous small depression wetlands, and the novel Quercus hemisphaerica Bartr. ex Willd (Sand Laurel Oak). — Pinus taeda L. (Loblolly Pine) Woodland. The high diversity of plant communities reflects the high diversity of soil types ranging from excessively drained deep sands to very poorly drained organic soils.