Rim Trail - Oak-Hemlock Forest

Whether hikers make their way up the hill from the lower trail head, or enter the rim trail from King Road, they will eventually be presented with a strikingly different ecological regime as soon as they enter the oak-hemlock forest. It is dark, almost desolate - an Oz-like, haunted wilderness (without a yellow brick road). The oak-hemlock forest is extensive, comprising about 20% of the entire rim trail. Within most of this subsection, understory vegetation is sparse, consisting of only those species that can tolerate the darkness, acidic soils and toxins produced by hemlocks and oaks. Even invasive species, which are common elsewhere along the rim trail, keep a healthy distance from this area.

A variety of other tree species are scattered about this forest, but eastern hemlock and the oaks (red, black, white and chestnut oaks) reign supreme.

Regarding low shrubs and herbaceous species that occur in the understory, heath family (Ericaceae) plants, such as deerberry*, huckleberry, wintergreen and trailing arbutus are occasionally found here. These species, tolerant of acidic soils, can been seen mostly along the trail in places where more light reaches the ground. One such spot is at the eastern overlook. There, one will also find witch hazel*, wild sarsaparilla, hairy bush-clover, cow wheat, bastard toadflax, sharp-leaved goldenrod, silverrod and calico aster, among other species.

. Vascular Plants of the Gorge at Buttermilk Falls State Park (Ithaca, NY) .
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. Plant Ecology of the Area Surveyed Rim Trail - Oak-Hemlock Forest .


	x Figure A. View of the oak-hemlock subsection of the rim trail, August 2018.


	Figure B. View of eastern overlook along rim trail, close to Pinnacle Rock and the double falls. July 2021.


	Figure C. Deerberry in flower along the rim trail, within the oak-hemlock forest, June 2019.