Synonymy

Festuca ovina-Calluna ‘Rock Heath’ Coombe & Frost 1956ap.p.; Erica vagans-Ulex europaeus ‘Mixed Heath’, Genista pilosa variant Coombe & Frost 1956tz; Calluno-Scilletum vernae Malloch 1971 p.p.; Maritime heath Urquhart & Gimingham 1979p.p.; Genisto maritimae-Ericetum einereae Bridgewater 1970; Anthyllio corbierei-Ericetum cinereae Bridgewater 1970; Festuca ovina-Calluna vulgaris heath Hopkins 1983; Erica vagans-Ulex europaeus heath, Genista pilosa variant Hopkins 1983.

Constant species

Calluna vulgaris, Erica cinerea, Festuca ovina, Holcus lanatus, Hypochoeris radicata, Lotus corniculatus, Plantago lanceolata, P. maritima, Potentilla erecta, Scilla verna, Thymus praecox.

Rare species

Allium schoenoprasum, Astragalus danicus, Erica vagans, Euphorbia portlandica, Genista pilosa, Herniaria ciliolata, Isoetes histrix, Minuartia verna, Primula scotica, Scilla autumnalis, S. verna, Spiranthes spiralis, Trifolium bocconei, T. occidentale.

Physiognomy

In the Calluna vulgaris-Scilla verna heath, sub-shrubs are a consistent feature of the vegetation, though they are not always very obvious at first sight. For one thing, the canopy is typically of very short stature, rarely over 20 cm and usually less than 10 cm, with the bushes often wind-shaped over the unconformities of the ground. Then, the cover of the woody plants is rarely continuous and quite often rather open, particularly in unsheltered or rocky situations where it can be reduced to scattered bushes with stretches of grassy sward or exposures between. Even where the sub-shrubs are more extensive, their branches are commonly inter-penetrated by the herbs and, in grazed sites, which occur throughout the range of the community but which are especially preva Lent to the north, the whole vegetation can be trimmed to a neat, tight mat, just 2 or 3 cm high.

Of the sub-shrubs, Calluna vulgaris is the most frequent throughout and the commonest dominant though, on drier soils, it is characteristically accompanied by Erica cinerea and this, too, can be abundant. Where the community extends on to wetter ground, as it often does in the rainier north of the country, the latter is much reduced in frequency and E. tetralix and/or Empetrum nigrum ssp. nigrum (generally one or the other) are the more usual associates of Calluna and sometimes codominant with it.