Ordination of Quarterman and Keever’s Original Southern Mixed Hardwood Forest

ABSTRACT
The original Southern Mixed Hardwood Forest data gathered by Elsie Quarterman and Catherine Keever for their paper on the forests of the southeastern United States Coastal Plain were reanalyzed using ordination techniques not available in 1962. When importance percent of the broadly distributed successional species <em>Pinus taeda</em> was deleted, detrended correspondence analysis produced an interpretable ordination of 27 stands. <em>Fagus grandifolia</em> is concentrated at the opposite end of an X axis from <em>Quercus hemisphaerica</em> Bartr. (= <em>Q. laurifolia</em> of Quarterman and Keever), with soils sandier and with lower available minerals at the <em>Q. hemisphaerica</em> end. <em>Carya glabra</em> and <em>Liquidambar styraciflua</em> concentrations overlap both of the above species. <em>Quercus alba</em> and <em>Carya tomentosa</em> are concentrated on the lower (drier?) end of the Y axis, with <em>Magnolia grandiflora</em> on the upper half of that axis and <em>Pinus glabra</em> at the extreme upper end. <em>Quercus falcata</em> and <em>Q. stellata</em> are concentrated at the lower end of the Y axis, and <em>Q. nigra</em> is broadly scattered over the ordination. The most abundant understory species, <em>Cornus florida</em>, is more important in the lower (drier?) portion of the ordination, and the second most important understory species, <em>Ostrya virginica</em>, is most important in the upper portion of the ordination. <em>Nyssa sylvatica</em> and the understory species <em>Ilex opaca</em> do not have interpretable patterns across the ordination. No geographical patterns or recognizable vegetational subdivisions emerge.