Lower Teakettle NEON - United States of America

The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) classifies Lower Teakettle as evergreen forest and shrub scrub vegetation types. At a finer scale, it is a mosaic of closed canopy pine and fir forest, shrub patches, and areas of exposed rock and shallow soil, with occasional wet meadows

punctuating the tree cover. Dominant tree species include red and white fir (Abies magnifica and Abies concolor, respectively), Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi) and lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta). Stand structure is diverse, with active recruitment and extensive coarse woody debris. Although dense tree cover limits understory shrubs, bush chinquapin (Chrysolepis sempervirens) often grows on forested slopes. Exposed rock and shallow soils support other shrub species, such mountain whitethorn (Ceanothus cordulatus), greenleaf manzanita (Arctostaphylos patula) and pinemat manzanita (Arctostaphylos nevadensis). Open pine and fir forests provide habitat for more shade-tolerant herbaceous plants, whereas meadows, streams and patches of shallow soil accommodate a greater diversity of native grasses, graminoids, and forbs.