Lutz spruce / Dwarf birch – Field horsetail
	Picea X lutzii /Betula nana – Equisetum arvense
	n = 8
	II.A.3. Dwarf tree scrub woodland
	Ecosystem: Relict Lakebed, Depression, Discharge Slope

This community has not been documented in Alaska.  Lutz spruce communities are poorly represented in the literature, and no white spruce peatland types are described.  The closest types, peatland black spruce (Picea mariana) communities, do not include field horsetail (Equisetum arvense).  The closest related community may be Yarie’s (1983) black spruce / dwarf birch / sedge community for the Porcupine River drainage of interior Alaska.

Lutz spruce / dwarf birch - field horsetail is very common in and around the 15,000 acre fen complex east of Anchor Point (“Daryl’s Fen”).  Another plot was sampled on a terrace above the Anchor River.  

Stunted or medium height Lutz spruce (Picea X lutzii) dots a low thicket of dwarf birch (Betula nana) with three ericaceous shrubs, crowberry (Empetrum nigrum), Labrador tea (Ledum palustre ssp. decumbens), and bog blueberry (Vaccinium uliginosum). Field horsetail and cloudberry (Rubus chamaemorus) cover is uniformly scattered, to continuous.  Two dwarf shrubs, lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea) and lowbush cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccos), are present and occasionally so is bluejoint grass (Calamagrostis canadensis).

The organic horizon is typically greater than 1.5 meters thick; at one locale, north of the large fen complex east of Anchor Poitn (Daryl’s Fen), it is less than the 40 cm needed to qualify as an organic soil (meeting the soils criterion for a jurisdictional wetland).  The water table is almost always within 20 cm of the surface.  All the sites visited qualify as jurisdictional wetlands.

Table 1. Frequency of occurrence and hydric status of soil series named at NRCS holes.  Bold type indicates soils on the NRCS Alaska hydric soils list. 

 Table 2.  Summary of plant frequency and average cover for plants occurring in more than 50% of plots.

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