Heath balds are typically found along narrow ridges and mountain crests, and consist of dense evergreen shrubs. While the formation of grassy balds is a mystery, heath balds are often located in areas where the soil experiences heavy drainage or is highly acidic, which would complicate the growth of large wooded plants.

Characteristic plants of the Southern Appalachian Heath Bald community. Distinguishing characteristics: Dominated by heath shrubs (Ericaceae), with only scattered, stunted trees and a sparse herbaceous layer, typically low species diversity with only 10 …

Heath, or shrub, balds are distinguished from all other community types by the dominance of dense shrubs, with the natural absence or near absence of tree cover, in topographically exposed, high elevation, convex slope sites, and without significant bare rock or herbaceous cover.

2021年3月10日 · Dense, shrub-dominated balds are confined in Virginia to high rocky summits in the Mount Rogers - Whitetop Mountain area of Grayson, Smyth, and Washington Counties, and on a few caprock promontories of the Iron Mountains and Clinch Mountain.

2006年11月5日 · Heath "balds" consist largely of catawba rhododendron and mountain-laurel. They outline the peaks and ridges in this rugged section of the Smokies near Alum Cave Bluffs. Red spruce, the dominant forest tree on these higher mountainsides, gives way to yellow birch in the intervening valleys (lower left).

Vegetation consists either of dense shrub-dominated areas (heath balds) or dense herbaceous cover dominated by grasses or sedges (grassy balds). Heath balds are most often dominated by Rhododendron catawbiense, but substantial examples are also dominated by Rhododendron carolinianum, Kalmia latifolia, or a mixture of shrubs

We used remote sensing and a geographic informa-tion system to model the distribution of evergreen shrub communities, called ‘heath balds’, in the Great Smoky Moun-tains, North Carolina and Tennessee, USA. The 421 heath balds averaged 1.8 ha …

Ericaceous plants offer beautiful flower colors, robust forms, and attractive deciduous or evergreen foliage. Some, such as the Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora), are parasitic plants and look more like a fungus than a green plant. Mountain laurel and rhododendrons remain a highly prized spring flowering plant for most landscapes.

Early successional mountain habitats may range from relatively ancient grassy balds on or adjacent to broad ridgetops (containing a variety of unique grass and herb species) to shrub‐dominated heath balds (alder, rhododendron and mountain laurel are common dominant species) to lower elevation fields, me...

Owing to their lack of forest cover, such places are called balds.That designation, however, is a relative one since other plants form a dense carpet over the balds. If these plants are largely shrubs belonging to the heath family, such balds are known as heath balds; if grasses and sedges prevail, the balds are termed grass balds.