Cinnamomum-Ardisia Forest in Northern Florida

Native old-field pineland with hardwood undergrowth was replaced 42 years later by alien hardwood forest dominated by invasive species at Goodwood forest in Tallahassee, Florida. Cinnamomum camphora dominated the overstory and Ardisia crenata the undergrowth. Succession theory would have anticipated development to native southern mixed hardwood forest or a subset called magnolia-beech forest. The initial native old-field forest community, prior to alien colonization, was characterized mostly by Pinus taeda, Quercus nigra, Liquidambar styraciflua and other lowland trees that were not likely to persist indefinitely on uplands. These trees colonized abandoned fields on account of a dearth of seed sources for oak-hickory forest trees which occupied these well drained uplands in the 18th century. Oak-hickory forest had been removed in the 19th century to allow the cultivation of cotton, and there was no evidence that it would recover at Goodwood forest.