• This association includes stunted beech forests of the southern Appalachians, occurring on north-facing upper slopes and in gaps in scattered, higher elevation (1,370 m) sites.
  • This community commonly occurs as small patches surrounded by other forest types.
    
    
• This community is a stunted, broad-leaved deciduous forest with a canopy dominated by Fagus grandifolia, with lesser amounts of Aesculus flava and Betula alleghaniensis.
  
  
• The subcanopy may include small stems of canopy species, as well as Acer spicatum, Acer pensylvanicum, Amelanchier laevis, and Sorbus americana.
  
  
• Typically there is little shrub development (2-10%) with such species as Crataegus punctata, Ribes spp., Viburnum lantanoides, Rubus canadensis, Hydrangea arborescens, and Cornus alternifolia.
  
  
• The herbaceous stratum is moderately dense (40-60% cover), dominated by large herbs and patches of ferns, with lesser amounts of sedges.
  • Typical herbs include Athyrium filix-femina ssp. asplenioides, Ageratina altissima var. roanensis, Eurybia chlorolepis, and Actaea racemosa.

• Stands of this type consist of low-stature, small-stemmed Fagus grandifolia, even smaller than the individual trees in the more common beech gap type.
  • Many of the occurrences of this type no longer have living Fagus grandifolia trees and so the vegetation has changed to close to 100% Rubus canadensis and other light-loving species.
    
    
• However, in the very few instances where there are still live Fagus grandifolia in the canopy, this community consists of large amounts of Dryopteris intermedia, Maianthemum racemosum, Trillium spp., Silene stellata, Eurybia chlorolepis, and other species associated with mesic slopes such as Impatiens pallida and Trautvetteria caroliniensis.

• This community is found in scattered sites on high elevations of the southern Appalachian Mountains.
  • The majority of this community is distributed within the mountains of North Carolina, but it also occurs in Tennessee and may extend into Georgia and Virginia.

• This association was observed on the Bunches Bald quadrangle and may exist throughout the park in areas of high elevation (above 4,600 feet).
  • However, the community is rare within the park, and healthy examples of this community may be rare to nonexistent at the time of publication.

• Global Conservation Status Rank: G1 (Last reviewed: 11 01 2002).
  
  
• This community has a very restricted range with scattered occurrences of small acreage.
  • Many occurrences have been, and continue to be, severely damaged by the European wild boar (Sus scrofa).
  • Grazing and soil disturbance by this animal reduces understory herb cover to 10-30 percent of undisturbed levels and may affect tree growth and nutrient cycling (Singer et al. 1984).
  • Beech bark disease, a complex made up of the Beech scale insect (Cryptococcus fagisuga) and a closely associated fungus (Nectria coccinea var. faginata) poses a serious threat to this community.
  • Another potential threat to this high-elevation community is atmospheric deposition of air pollutants, which may result in tree growth decline.
  • Most all of the beech gap communities in the Great Smoky Mountains had succumbed to the beech bark disease or a combination of the beech bark disease and pollution by 2002 (R. White pers. comm.).
  • Presumably this trend is being seen throughout the southern Appalachians, resulting in the possible extinction of this community in the next few years.
  • Therefore, this community was assigned a rank of G1.

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