Summary

Description

This research was designed to collect data on the understory plant composition of remnant bottomland hardwood forest tracts on accessible public lands in the LMAV region of Mississippi. The MS surveys of understory vegetation yielded a total of 107 plant species, consisting of 60 herbaceous species and 47 woody species. This probably underestimated understory diversity in these forests, since the latesummer survey likely missed some earlyspring herbaceous flora. Of the total species, there were 42 forbs, 18 graminoids grasses and sedges, 18 woody vines, and 27 tree and shrub species. In AR and LA, an average of 72 understory species per state had been recorded from 8 sites per state, with a similar compositional profile of 31 forbs, 14 graminoids, 19 vines, 35 tree and shrub species, plus 1 aquatic species. The MS surveys detected a total of 30 tree species in the overstory and midstory; 90 of these also occurred in the previously sampled ARLA forest sites Table 2. On average, the tree species similarity based on Coefficient of Community between MS vs. ARLA samples was 72. This verifies that the surveyed MS bottomland forest tracts are generally comparable to the ARLA sites sampled previously. Data from this survey will be analyzed with other existing data to achieve a regional comparison of understory vegetation in restored WRP sites and remnant bottomland forests of the LMAV. Species occurences along nested plots of a transect are presented including understory, midstory, and overstory.