1 The recovery of forest vegetation following abandonment of agriculture wa
s followed by surveying forest herbs in central New York State at 25 sites
where postagricultural forest occurred directly adjacent to old-woods (fore
st that has never been ploughed).
2 The abundance, richness and diversity of 50 forest herbs were on average
lower in postagricultural forests than in old-woods.
3 Thirty of 39 forest herbs that were found in at least four stands were le
ss frequent (number of plots present out of 60) in postagricultural forests
than in old-woods. Three species (Aster divaricatus, Dryopteris intermedia
and Polystichum acrostichoides) had significantly higher frequency in old-
woods, while none was significantly more common in postagricultural forests
.
4 Although differences among species in their frequency in the two forest t
ypes were not strongly related to dispersal mode, species with rapid clonal
expansion were significantly more frequent in postagricultural stands.
5 Several species that were less frequent in postagricultural forests than
in old-woods showed decreases in density in postagricultural forests with i
ncreasing distance from the adjacent old-woods.