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.