• This vegetation occurs at high elevations in the southern Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee.
  • It is successional vegetation resulting from severe disturbance of spruce-fir forests (including Balsam Woolly Adelgid-affected stands and stands which were severely burned after logging), as well as exposed sites with other frequent, natural disturbance (such as shrub invasion of grazed fire meadows).
  • It occurs on exposed summits and high slopes, typically at elevations over 6,000 feet.
  • This community includes high-elevation Appalachian Rubus thickets and differs from Rubus thickets on grassy balds by predominance of forbs rather than sedges and by frequent presence of Rubus idaeus.
    
    
• The long-term future of this community is uncertain, but it appears to be fairly stable over periods of several decades.
  • A variation of this community occurs in areas such as Shining Rock Wilderness and parts of the Great Smoky Mountains where fires were started after logging had taken place and the intensity of the fires due to the accumulated slash burned down nearly to mineral soil.
• These areas do not have as much coarse woody debris from downed spruce or fir and often have a canopy approaching that of a woodland with sparse coverage of Sorbus americana and Prunus pensylvanica.
  
  
• Vegetation is variously dominated by dense Rubus canadensis or by dense Athyrium filix-femina ssp. asplenioides and Solidago glomerata (on more protected sites).
  
  
• Standing dead Abies fraseri often tower above the shrubs and herbs, and there is usually much downed woody debris.
  • Other species present include Agrostis perennans, Angelica triquinata, Oclemena acuminata, Carex brunnescens, Carex crinita, Carex intumescens, Carex debilis, Cinna latifolia, Clintonia borealis, Danthonia compressa, Diervilla sessilifolia, Oxalis montana, Prunus pensylvanica, Sorbus americana, and Rugelia nudicaulis.
  • Scattered living Picea rubens, Betula alleghaniensis, and Amelanchier laevis may occur.

• This is successional vegetation on the summit of Mount Le Conte and Clingman's Dome resulting from the death of Abies fraseri.
  
  
• Vegetation is variously dominated by Rubus canadensis and Diervilla sessilifolia (on the most exposed sites), by dense Rubus canadensis, or by dense Athyrium filix-femina ssp. asplenioides and Solidago glomerata (on more protected sites).
  
  
• Standing dead trees tower above the shrubs and herbs, and there is much downed woody debris.
  • Other species present include Abies fraseri, Agrostis perennans, Angelica triquinata, Oclemena acuminata, Carex brunnescens, Carex crinita, Carex intumescens, Carex debilis, Cinna latifolia, Clintonia borealis, Danthonia compressa, Oxalis montana, Picea rubens, Prunus pensylvanica, Rugelia nudicaulis, and Sorbus americana.
  • A variant of this type that originated from logging followed by severe fire tends to have a 10-40% canopy cover of Prunus pensylvanica and Sorbus americana, but a similar herbaceous/shrub layer.

• This vegetation occurs at high elevations in the southern Appalachians of North Carolina and Tennessee.

• This community was sampled on the summit of Mount Le Conte on the Mount Le Conte quadrangle and on Clingman's Dome.
  • It was not sampled, nor is it expected, on the Cades Cove quadrangle, although it may occur in other areas of the park.
    
    
• It occurs in most areas of the park that reach an elevation of 6,000 feet or more and have spruce-fir forest.

• Global Conservation Status Rank: GNA (modified/managed) (Last reviewed: 08 20 2002).
  
  
• This community represents an altered vegetation type, modified by the effects of an alien pest species and/or the effects of past land use.
  • Examples of this vegetation once represented what is now a globally rare and critically imperiled community that has an uncertain future.
  • This modified vegetation is now a natural part of high-elevation landscapes in the Southern Blue Ridge and an important part of the functioning landscape, providing habitat for many southern Appalachian species.
  • For conservation planning purposes, examples of this community may be best considered low-quality occurrences of forests in the ~Abies fraseri - Picea rubens Forest Alliance (A.136).

CAP [Central Appalachian Forest Working Group]. 1998. Central Appalachian Working group discussions. The Nature Conservancy, Boston, MA.

NatureServe Ecology - Southeastern United States. No date. Unpublished data. NatureServe, Durham, NC.

Peet, R. K., T. R. Wentworth, M. P. Schafale, and A.S. Weakley. 2002. Unpublished data of the North Carolina Vegetation Survey. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Southeastern Ecology Working Group of NatureServe. No date. International Ecological Classification Standard: International Vegetation Classification. Terrestrial Vegetation. NatureServe, Durham, NC.