Pitch Pine / Scrub Oak Barrens

Pitch Pine and Scrub Oak Barrens

Wellfleet Pitch Pine and Scrub Oak (.jpg - 77k)

These barrens are dry pitch pine (Pinus rigida) forests with acidic, sandy, nutrient-poor soils, open canopies and dense understories of scrub oak (Quercus ilicifolia). Unlike the majority of Cape forests, tree oaks do not co-dominate these areas. Instead, open areas have bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), sedges (Carex spp.), lichens (Caladonia spp.), and broom crowberry (Corema conradii).

Pitch pine/scrub oak barrens are fire-maintained communities in which nutrients are released in ash. Succession by hardwood tree species is prevented by periodic burns. These communities survive moderate fires very well, and species diversity is greatest in the years after a burn.

Large pitch pine barrens are mosaics of small habitats, often containing kettle holes dominated by low-growing heaths. Barrens support different plant and wildlife populations than denser pitch pine/tree oak forests do, and moths especially flourish in barrens. The barrens buck moth (Hemileuca maia) is only found in pitch pine/scrub oak barrens.

These barrens are often in areas desirable to developers, because the topography is well-suited to construction. Large barrens are subdivided by development, thus decreasing species diversity, which is highest in large tracts. With development comes fire suppression, which ends the burns so critical to pitch pine/scrub oak barren maintenance.