Synonymy

Scottish Calluna heath Smith 1911b p.p.; Calluna-Arctostaphylos heath Muir & Fraser 1940, Gimingham 1964a, 1972; Arctostaphyleto-Callunetum McVean & Ratcliffe 1962, Ward 1971; Vaccinio-Ericetum cinereae (Birse & Robertson 1976) Birse 1980 p.p.; Arctostaphylos heath Urquhart 1986.

Constant species

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, Calluna vulgaris, Deschampsia flexuosa, Erica cinerea, Vaccinium vitis-idaea, Dicranum scoparium, Hylocomium splendens, Hypnum jutlandicum, Pleurozium schreberi, Cladonia impexa.

Rare species

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, Lycopodium annotinum, Pyrola media.

Physiognomy

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi can be found in a variety of heath types as an occasional, locally prominent associate but, in the heart of its range, it is most often found in this community which, though it has much in common with other sub-shrub vegetation of the region, frequently has a distinct boreal character. The Calluna vulgaris-A. uva-ursi heath, like its closest relative, the Calluna-Vaccinium heath, can have a variegated woody cover. Calluna is always present and overall it is the most frequent dominant, usually abundant and often overwhelmingly so, in a canopy that usually attains 2-4 dm in height and which can have a substantial total cover. Where, as is often the case, the vegetation is recovering from fairly recent burning, the heather can grow in dense building-phase stands from which many associates are all but excluded, and in such cases the diagnosis of the community is clearly very difficult. Frequently, however, other sub-shrubs make at least a minor contribution to the canopy and are able in various ways to exploit temporal and spatial gaps in the Calluna cover, attaining some measure of local abundance early in the heather regeneration cycle and sometimes again where the bushes have been allowed to proceed to the degenerate phase. But more precise studies of the effects of fire have been made here than on any other kind of heath (see below) and they show that the patterns of recovery are very varied and often quite persistent (e.g. Hobbs & Gimingham 1984Z?) so, within the general definition, even the proportions of the most frequent contributors to the vegetation can be diverse.

A. uva-ursi, though, is likewise a constant of the community and it can become modestly abundant in gaps within the heather cover but, even there, it typically has a prostrate habit, the branches of the creeping stems forming low mats, often only 5 cm or so thick.