Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Preamble
- Salt-marsh communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- SM1: Zostera communities: Zosterion Christiansen 1934
- SM2: Ruppia maritima salt-marsh community: Ruppietum maritimae Hocquette 1927
- SM3: Eleocharis parvula salt-marsh community: Eleocharitetum parvulae (Preuss 1911/12) Gillner 1960
- SM4: Spartina maritima salt-marsh community: Spartinetum maritimae (Emb. & Regn. 1926) Corillion 1953
- SM5: Spartina alterniflora salt-marsh community: Spartinetum alterniflorae Corillion 1953
- SM6: Spartina anglica salt-marsh community: Spartinetum townsendii (Tansley 1939) Corillion 1953
- SM7: Arthrocnemum perenne stands
- SM8: Annual Salicornia salt-marsh community: Salicornietum europaeae Warming 1906
- SM9: Suaeda maritima salt-marsh community: Suaedetum maritimae (Conrad 1935) Pignatti 1953
- SM10: Transitional low-marsh vegetation with Puccinellia maritima, annual: Salicornia species and Suaeda maritima
- SM11: Aster tripolium var. discoideus salt-marsh community: Asteretum tripolii Tansley 1939
- SM12: Rayed Aster tripolium on salt-marshes
- SM13: Puccinellia maritima salt-marsh community: Puccinellietum maritimae (Warming 1906) Christiansen 1927
- SM14: Halimione portulacoides salt-marsh community: Halimionetum portulacoidis (Kuhnholtz-Lordat 1927) Des Abbayes & Corillion 1949
- SM15: Juncus maritimus-Triglochin maritima salt-marsh community
- SM16: Festuca rubra salt-marsh community: Juncetum gerardi Warming 1906
- SM17: Artemisia maritima salt-marsh community: Artemisietum maritimae Hocquette 1927
- SM18: Juncus maritimus salt-marsh community
- SM19: Blysmus rufus salt-marsh community: Blysmetum rufi (G. E. & G. Du Rietz 1925) Gillner 1960
- SM20: Eleocharis uniglumis salt-marsh community: Eleocharitetum uniglumis Nordhagen 1923
- SM21: Suaeda vera-Limonium binervosum salt-marsh community
- SM22: Halimione portulacoides-Frankenia laevis salt-marsh community: Limonio vulgaris-Frankenietum laevis Géhu & Géhu-Franck 1975
- SM23: Spergularia marina-Puccinellia distans salt-marsh community: Puccinellietum distantis Feekes (1934) 1945
- SM24: Elymus pycnanthus salt-marsh community: Atriplici-Elymetum pycnanthi Beeftink & Westhoff 1962
- SM25: Suaeda vera drift-line community: Elymo pycnanthi-Suaedetum verae (Arènes 1933) Géhu 1975
- SM26: Inula crithmoides on salt-marshes
- SM27: Ephemeral salt-marsh vegetation with Sagina maritima: Saginion maritimae Westhoff, van Leeuwen & Adriani 1962
- SM28: Elymus repens salt-marsh community: Elymetum repentis maritimum Nordhagen 1940
- Shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- 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
SM27: Ephemeral salt-marsh vegetation with Sagina maritima: Saginion maritimae Westhoff, van Leeuwen & Adriani 1962
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Preamble
- Salt-marsh communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- SM1: Zostera communities: Zosterion Christiansen 1934
- SM2: Ruppia maritima salt-marsh community: Ruppietum maritimae Hocquette 1927
- SM3: Eleocharis parvula salt-marsh community: Eleocharitetum parvulae (Preuss 1911/12) Gillner 1960
- SM4: Spartina maritima salt-marsh community: Spartinetum maritimae (Emb. & Regn. 1926) Corillion 1953
- SM5: Spartina alterniflora salt-marsh community: Spartinetum alterniflorae Corillion 1953
- SM6: Spartina anglica salt-marsh community: Spartinetum townsendii (Tansley 1939) Corillion 1953
- SM7: Arthrocnemum perenne stands
- SM8: Annual Salicornia salt-marsh community: Salicornietum europaeae Warming 1906
- SM9: Suaeda maritima salt-marsh community: Suaedetum maritimae (Conrad 1935) Pignatti 1953
- SM10: Transitional low-marsh vegetation with Puccinellia maritima, annual: Salicornia species and Suaeda maritima
- SM11: Aster tripolium var. discoideus salt-marsh community: Asteretum tripolii Tansley 1939
- SM12: Rayed Aster tripolium on salt-marshes
- SM13: Puccinellia maritima salt-marsh community: Puccinellietum maritimae (Warming 1906) Christiansen 1927
- SM14: Halimione portulacoides salt-marsh community: Halimionetum portulacoidis (Kuhnholtz-Lordat 1927) Des Abbayes & Corillion 1949
- SM15: Juncus maritimus-Triglochin maritima salt-marsh community
- SM16: Festuca rubra salt-marsh community: Juncetum gerardi Warming 1906
- SM17: Artemisia maritima salt-marsh community: Artemisietum maritimae Hocquette 1927
- SM18: Juncus maritimus salt-marsh community
- SM19: Blysmus rufus salt-marsh community: Blysmetum rufi (G. E. & G. Du Rietz 1925) Gillner 1960
- SM20: Eleocharis uniglumis salt-marsh community: Eleocharitetum uniglumis Nordhagen 1923
- SM21: Suaeda vera-Limonium binervosum salt-marsh community
- SM22: Halimione portulacoides-Frankenia laevis salt-marsh community: Limonio vulgaris-Frankenietum laevis Géhu & Géhu-Franck 1975
- SM23: Spergularia marina-Puccinellia distans salt-marsh community: Puccinellietum distantis Feekes (1934) 1945
- SM24: Elymus pycnanthus salt-marsh community: Atriplici-Elymetum pycnanthi Beeftink & Westhoff 1962
- SM25: Suaeda vera drift-line community: Elymo pycnanthi-Suaedetum verae (Arènes 1933) Géhu 1975
- SM26: Inula crithmoides on salt-marshes
- SM27: Ephemeral salt-marsh vegetation with Sagina maritima: Saginion maritimae Westhoff, van Leeuwen & Adriani 1962
- SM28: Elymus repens salt-marsh community: Elymetum repentis maritimum Nordhagen 1940
- Shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- 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
Small stands of ephemeral vegetation with an often open cover of annuals and short-lived perennials occur patchily on British salt-marshes. Recurrent assemblages are rare and there seems to be a large element of chance in the floristic composition, early arrivals frequently preempting the niche. Such vegetation may include Sagina maritima, S. nodosa and Plantago coronopus, more rarely Bupleurum tenuissimum (to the south-east) and Centaurium littorale (to the north) and provide a salt-marsh context for ephemerals such as Cochlearia danica and Desmazeria marina which also occur in other maritime habitats.
Breaks in the turf of mid-and upper-marsh communities provide the most usual habitat for such species and they are especially characteristic of old turf-cuttings where they form part of the sequence of recolonising vegetation giving way to mixtures of Festuca rubra, Agrostis stolonifera, Puccinellia maritima and Potentilla anserina, which come to approximate to the Puccinellietum maritimae, the Juncetum gerardi or the Festuca-Agrostis-Potentilla mesotrophic grassland. Such ephemerals also occur in disturbed situations around reclamation banks (e.g. Gray 1977, 1979, Adam & Akeroyd 1978).
This kind of vegetation is the nearest equivalent in Britain to similarly diverse assemblages on Continental salt-marshes which have been assigned to the Saginion alliance in the Saginetea maritimae Westhoff, van Leeuwen & Adriani 1962 (e.g. Beeftink 1962, 1965, 1975, 1977a; Tüxen & Westhoff 1963; Westhodd & den Held 1969).
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- British Plant Communities , pp. 109Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000