Abstract for CNVC00305

Forest
Forêt

Populus tremuloides / Alnus viridis (Rosa acicularis)

Trembling Aspen / Green Alder (Prickly Rose)
Peuplier faux-tremble / Aulne vert (Rosier aciculaire)

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CNVC00305 is a boreal hardwood forest Association that occurs in Manitoba and Ontario. It has a closed canopy of trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides), sometimes with paper birch (Betula papyrifera) as a companion species. The shrub layer is usually dense, often with a tall shrub layer of green alder (Alnus viridis) or mountain maple (Acer spicatum) in addition to regenerating black spruce (Picea mariana) and lower abundance of paper birch or trembling aspen saplings and squashberry (Viburnum edule). Prickly rose (Rosa acicularis) and the heath species velvet-leaved blueberry (Vaccinium myrtilloides) and common Labrador tea (Rhododendron groenlandicum) are common in the low shrub layer, although northern bush-honeysuckle (Diervilla lonicera) can dominate this layer where present. The usually well-developed herb layer typically includes bunchberry (Cornus canadensis), twinflower (Linnaea borealis), wild lily-of-the-valley (Maianthemum canadense), wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis), northern starflower (Lysimachia borealis), yellow clintonia (Clintonia borealis), dwarf raspberry (Rubus pubescens), stiff clubmoss (Lycopodium annotinum) and fireweed (Chamerion angustifolium). Where the forest floor cover is mainly broad-leaf litter, the moss layer is virtually nonexistent. In areas with less leaf litter, red-stemmed feathermoss (Pleurozium schreberi), stairstep moss (Hylocomium splendens) and knight’s plume moss (Ptilium crista-castrensis) can form a well-developed, often thick, moss layer. CNVC00305 is an early seral condition that typically establishes after fire or harvesting. It occurs in a region with a subhumid continental boreal climate, usually on mesic, nutrient-medium to rich sites. Three subassociations are distinguished: Alnus viridis, Acer spicatum and Hylocomium splendens.

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