Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Preamble
- Salt-marsh communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- Shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- Maritime cliff communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- MC1: Crithmum maritimum-Spergularia rupicola maritime rock-crevice community: Crithmo-Spergularietum rupicolae Géhu 1964
- MC2: Armeria maritima-Ligusticum scoticum maritime rock-crevice community
- MC3: Rhodiola rosea-Armeria maritima maritime cliff-ledge community
- MC4: Brassica oleracea maritime cliff-ledge community
- MC5: Armeria maritima-Cerastium diffusum ssp. diffusum maritime therophyte community
- MC6: Atriplex prostrata-Beta vulgaris ssp. maritima sea-bird cliff community: Atriplici-Betetum maritimae J.-M. & J. Géhu 1969
- MC7: Stellaria media-Rumex acetosa sea-bird cliff community
- MC8: Festuca rubra-Armeria maritima maritime grassland
- MC9: Festuca rubra-Holcus lanatus maritime grassland
- MC10: Festuca rubra-Plantago spp. maritime grassland
- MC11: Festuca rubra-Daucus carota ssp. gummifer maritime grassland
- MC12: Festuca rubra-Hyacinthoides non-scripta maritime bluebell community
- Vegetation of open habitats
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- INDEX OF SYNONYMS TO MARITIME COMMUNITIES AND VEGETATION OF OPEN HABITATS
- INDEX OF SPECIES IN MARITIME COMMUNITIES AND VEGETATION OF OPEN HABITATS
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- PHYTOSOCIOLOGICAL CONSPECTUS OF BRITISH PLANT COMMUNITIES
MC7: Stellaria media-Rumex acetosa sea-bird cliff community
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Preamble
- Salt-marsh communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- Shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- Maritime cliff communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- MC1: Crithmum maritimum-Spergularia rupicola maritime rock-crevice community: Crithmo-Spergularietum rupicolae Géhu 1964
- MC2: Armeria maritima-Ligusticum scoticum maritime rock-crevice community
- MC3: Rhodiola rosea-Armeria maritima maritime cliff-ledge community
- MC4: Brassica oleracea maritime cliff-ledge community
- MC5: Armeria maritima-Cerastium diffusum ssp. diffusum maritime therophyte community
- MC6: Atriplex prostrata-Beta vulgaris ssp. maritima sea-bird cliff community: Atriplici-Betetum maritimae J.-M. & J. Géhu 1969
- MC7: Stellaria media-Rumex acetosa sea-bird cliff community
- MC8: Festuca rubra-Armeria maritima maritime grassland
- MC9: Festuca rubra-Holcus lanatus maritime grassland
- MC10: Festuca rubra-Plantago spp. maritime grassland
- MC11: Festuca rubra-Daucus carota ssp. gummifer maritime grassland
- MC12: Festuca rubra-Hyacinthoides non-scripta maritime bluebell community
- Vegetation of open habitats
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- INDEX OF SYNONYMS TO MARITIME COMMUNITIES AND VEGETATION OF OPEN HABITATS
- INDEX OF SPECIES IN MARITIME COMMUNITIES AND VEGETATION OF OPEN HABITATS
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- PHYTOSOCIOLOGICAL CONSPECTUS OF BRITISH PLANT COMMUNITIES
Summary
Synonymy
Bird cliff vegetation Petch 1933; Zooplethismic vegetation Poore & Robertson 1949; Cochlearietum Goodman & Gillham 1954 p.p.; Herring gull colony vegetation Sobey & Kenworthy 1979 p.p.
Constant species
Stellaria media.
Physiognomy
The Stellaria-Rumex community has a scruffy but generally closed cover of S. media with some Festuca rubra, Agrostis stolonifera and Holcus lanatus (each of which may be abundant) and a little R. acetosa and Armeria maritima. There is a variety of low frequency occasionals of maritime and inland grasslands and of disturbed habitats. Cochlearia officinalis may be much more abundant early in spring than later.
Habitat
The community is always associated with disturbance and manuring by colonial sea-birds. On St Kilda, it is particularly frequent around the nest burrows of puffin (Fratercula arctica) where there is considerable excavation of soil.
Zonation and succession
As with the Atriplici-Betetum community, this vegetation forms a mosaic with surrounding maritime crevice communities and grasslands and its spatial and temporal relationships with these are likely to be governed by the intensity of sea-bird activity and the high maritime influence.
Distribution
The community has been recorded from scattered sites from Pembrokeshire round to the Firth of Forth.
Affinities
Among the apparently rather variable assemblages of species able to take advantage of the seasonal enrichment of soils exposed to high maritime influence, this is distinct from the latter in the replacement of B. vulgaris ssp. maritima and A. prostrata by S. media and R. acetosa.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- British Plant Communities , pp. 284 - 285Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000