Richmond National Battlefield Park is home to a variety of tree and shrub communities, created by the parks varying environmental conditions, successional stages, historical land use patterns, and present-day management strategies. These communities foster several interesting tree and shrub populations.
The Cold Harbor unit consists primarily of dry, sandy soils where the park maintains a coastal plain mixed oak/heath forest through prescribed burning. However, the bottomlands along Bloody Run Creek contain some of the unit’s oldest and largest trees. Immense Black Gum and Red Maple dominate the canopy above an interesting association of hydrophytic species. Wild Azalea and Viburnum nudum comprise the shrub layer, while Golden Club, Skunk Cabbage, and ferns carpet the forest floor.
Gaines’ Mill contains an early successional mixed hardwood-pine forest, wooded slopes dominated by an old-growth oak forest, and a wide bottomland community along Boatswain Creek. The oak forest community is dominated by White Oak, Tuliptree, and American Beech. Some of the older individual trees may have been present during the Battle of Gaines’ Mill in 1862. The shrub layer at Gaines' Mill features American Holly, Blueberry, and Dangleberry.
The Malvern Hill and Glendale units are characterized by their very diverse landscapes, including flat uplands, rich coves, drier side slopes, moist bottomlands, and wetlands. One notable community is a small section of streamside bottomland that is home to a Bald Cypress grove, along with a canopy of Sweetgum, Red Maple, and Tuliptree. The shrub layer of this unique community is dominated by spicebush.
Trees and shrubs create valuable habitat for a variety of fauna in the park. Throughout their lives, trees play a critical role in moderating the structure of their communities. For example, young forest trees allow more sunlight to reach the shrub and herbaceous layers, which respond by growing densely. As the trees matures, less light can reach the forest floor, so dense understory growth thins out. Richmond National Battlefield Park provides the opportunity to experience a wide variety of tree and shrub communities in various successional stages, which, in turn, create important habitat for a diversity of faunal communities.
