Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Preamble
- Salt-marsh communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- Shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- SD1: Rumex crispus-Glaucium flavum shingle community
- SD2: Honkenya peploides-Cakile maritima strandline community
- SD3: Matricaria maritima-Galium aparine strandline community
- SD4: Elymus farctus ssp. boreali-atlanticus foredune community
- SD5: Leymus arenarius mobile dune community
- SD6: Ammophila arenaria mobile dune community
- SD7: Ammophila arenaria-Festuca rubra semi-fixed dune community
- SD8: Festuca rubra-Galium verum fixed dune grassland
- SD9: Ammophila arenaria-Arrhenatherum elatius dune grassland
- SD10: Carex arenaria dune community
- SD11: Carex arenaria-Cornicularia aculeata dune community
- SD12: Carex arenaria-Festuca ovina-Agrostis capillaris dune grassland
- SD13: Sagina nodosa-Bryum pseudotriquetrum dune-slack community
- SD14: Salix repens-Campylium stellatum dune-slack community
- SD15: Salix repens-Calliergon cuspidatum dune-slack community
- SD16: Salix repens-Holcus lanatus dune-slack community
- SD17: Potentilla anserina-Carex nigra dune-slack community
- SD18: Hippophae rhamnoides dune scrub
- SD19: Phleum arenarium-Arenaria serpyllifolia dune annual community: Tortulo-Phleetum arenariae (Massart 1908) Br.-Bl. & de Leeuw 1936
- Maritime cliff communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- 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
SD19: Phleum arenarium-Arenaria serpyllifolia dune annual community: Tortulo-Phleetum arenariae (Massart 1908) Br.-Bl. & de Leeuw 1936
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
- SD1: Rumex crispus-Glaucium flavum shingle community
- SD2: Honkenya peploides-Cakile maritima strandline community
- SD3: Matricaria maritima-Galium aparine strandline community
- SD4: Elymus farctus ssp. boreali-atlanticus foredune community
- SD5: Leymus arenarius mobile dune community
- SD6: Ammophila arenaria mobile dune community
- SD7: Ammophila arenaria-Festuca rubra semi-fixed dune community
- SD8: Festuca rubra-Galium verum fixed dune grassland
- SD9: Ammophila arenaria-Arrhenatherum elatius dune grassland
- SD10: Carex arenaria dune community
- SD11: Carex arenaria-Cornicularia aculeata dune community
- SD12: Carex arenaria-Festuca ovina-Agrostis capillaris dune grassland
- SD13: Sagina nodosa-Bryum pseudotriquetrum dune-slack community
- SD14: Salix repens-Campylium stellatum dune-slack community
- SD15: Salix repens-Calliergon cuspidatum dune-slack community
- SD16: Salix repens-Holcus lanatus dune-slack community
- SD17: Potentilla anserina-Carex nigra dune-slack community
- SD18: Hippophae rhamnoides dune scrub
- SD19: Phleum arenarium-Arenaria serpyllifolia dune annual community: Tortulo-Phleetum arenariae (Massart 1908) Br.-Bl. & de Leeuw 1936
- Maritime cliff communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- 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
Constant species
Ammophila arenaria, Arenaria serpyllifolia, Carex arenaria, Festuca rubra, Phleum arenarium.
Rare species
Mibora minima, Vulpia membranacea.
Physiognomy
The Tortulo-Phleetum comprises generally open assemblages of ephemerals which make a brief appearance in the dampness of spring and early summer among gaps in a cover of perennial grasses and dicotyledonous herbs of semi-fixed to fixed dunes.
The most distinctive species of the community are the annual grass Phleum arenarium with Arenaria serpyllifola, Cerastium diffusum ssp. diffusum, Aira praecox and Viola tricolor ssp. curtisii and the moss Tortula ruralis ssp. ruraliformis. Ammophila arenaria, Festuca rubra and Carex arenaria are consistently represented in the grassland matrix in which this vegetation makes its appearance, together with Ononis repens, Lotus corniculatus, Senecio jacobaea and, more occasionally, Poa pratensis.
Light-demanding mat plants like Thymus praecox and Sedum acre figure quite commonly and there are occasional records for Cerastium semidecandrum, Desmazeria marina, Euphorbia paralias, Logfia minima, Erophila verna, Trifolium dubium, T. campestre, Erodium cicutarium, Geranium molle and Centaurium erythraea. This community also provides a locus for the nationally rare Mibora minima and Vulpia membranacea.
In addition to T. ruralis ssp. ruraliformis, Hypnum cupressiforme is frequent, Homalothecicum lutescens, Brachythecium albicans and Tortella flavovirens occasional. Peltigera canina can also occur with some local abundance.
Habitat
The Tortulo-Phleetum is a community that capitalises on the appearance of gaps with essentially stable sand that develop where semi-fixed and fixed dune swards are opened up by drought or locally disturbed, often by rabbits or modest anthropogenic activity.
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- Information
- British Plant Communities , pp. 247 - 250Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000