Synonymy

Carex arenaria community West 1936, 1937; Corynephorus canescens localities Marshall 1967 p.p.; Carex arenaria vegetation Noble 1982 p.p.

Constant species

Carex arenaria.

Rare species

Astragalus danicus, Corynephorus canescens.

Physiognomy

The Carex arenaria community includes very open to more or less closed swards in which the sand-sedge is the most abundant plant, where vascular associates are few in number and usually sparsely distributed and where there is hardly any contribution from mosses or lichens on what is often still a somewhat mobile sand surface. Where the sedge is invading freshly-deposited material, its initial cover may be very low, the shoots emerging, spaced out and generally single, in striking straight lines from the far-creeping rhizomes. If accretion continues at a fairly modest rate, well-established plants can keep pace but, as the sand starts to become stabilised, clones can thicken up very considerably with densely-packed shoots growing tiller-like from short, closely-spaced branches. Up to several hundred shoots per m2 have been recorded in this vegetation, but vigour is affected by soil conditions in a particular stand and by grazing which can reduce the sedge to very squat proportions (Tidmarsh 1939, Noble 1982).

In younger stands, or where C. arenaria has preempted a site and remained strongly dominant, there may be very little else growing among it.