A phytosociological description of a remnant bottomland hardwood forest inDenton County, Texas

A remnant bottomland hardwood forest near Denton, Texas was surveyed in ord er to describe its phytosociological composition. Hackberry, cedar elm and green ash dominate the site with respect to basal area, density and frequen cy in the forest. Importance values for these three dominant species are 40 %, 28% and 10%, respectively. Snag density was found to be 57 per hectare. Cluster analyses of plot metrics indicate a patchy forest. Many trees were found to be well over 200 years old, indicating that the forest predates an y significant Angle settlement. These results indicate that the forest may be classified as transitional old-growth of the hackberry/elm/ash forest ty pe. Because of its unique status as a relatively intact north Texas bottoml and hardwood forest, the data obtained from this site: can be used for comp arisons with other bottomland forests, and as a guideline for future restor ation efforts throughout the northwestern region of the southern bottomland forests.