Southeastern mixed forests grow in below the pines. Sugar maple ("Acer saccharum"), a shade tolerant tree, grows amid the oaks and hickories in the northern part of this ecoregion. Mesic forests occur in fertile, mesic, low-elevation habitats such as deep ravines and sheltered north- or east-facing slopes. Dominant trees include American beech ("Fagus grandifolia"), tulip tree ("Liriodendron tulipifera"), northern red oak, white ash ("Fraxinus americana"), black maple ("Acer nigrum"), sugar maple ("Acer saccharum"), basswood ("Tilia americana"), and bitternut hickory ("Carya cordiformis"). Understory trees include pawpaw ("Asimina triloba") and painted buckeye ("Aesculus sylvatica"). Mesic mixed hardwood forests grow on mesic uplands, ravines, lower slopes,
Carex sylvatica York and North Carolina, and to New Zealand, where it was first recorded in 1969. In its native range, "C. sylvatica" lives in deciduous woodlands on heavy soils; it is sometimes found in unwooded areas, but usually only as a relic of ancient woodland. In North America, it is generally found in disturbed areas within deciduous woodland. "Carex sylvatica" was first described by the English botanist William Hudson in his 1762 work "Flora Anglica". Hybrids have been reported between "C. sylvatica" and "C. strigosa" (in France) and between "C. sylvatica" and "C. hirta" (in Austria). Its English common name is