Synonymy

Ulmaria society Pearsall 1918; Filipendula ulmaria consocies Tansley 1939; Filipendula communities Proctor 1974; Tall herb fens Adam et al. 1975 p.p.; Filipendulo-Ir ide turn pseudacori Adam 1976 p.p., Adam et al. 1977 p.p.; Epilobium hirsutum-Filipendula ulmaria community Wheeler 1980c p.p.; Valeriano-Filipenduletum (Sissingh 1946) Birse 1980; Fen meadow Ratcliffe & Hattey 1982 p.p.; Junco-Filipenduletum Jones 1984 p.p.

Constant species

Filipendula ulmaria.

Physiognomy

Filipendula ulmaria is a frequent and locally abundant member of a variety of herbaceous vegetation types, notably Phragmitetalia fens, damp Arrhenatheretalia swards and the rush-pastures and fen-meadows of the Molinietalia. But it is also widely encountered as a more overwhelming component of vegetation in which the dominants of the above communities, tall helophytes, bulky sedges, rushes and rank grasses, are, if present at all, relegated to a subordinate role. Most of this kind of vegetation is included in the Filipendula ulmaria-Angelica sylvestris mire.

F. ulmaria is a shortly rhizomatous perennial which puts up an annual crop of leafy shoots and, under the favourable conditions characteristic here, these grow tall and luxurious, often reaching a metre or more in height and becoming densely dominant over extensive areas where clonal patches coalesce. In the deep shade cast by this herbage, the associated flora, though quite varied in composition from stand to stand, is frequently poor in species: F. ulmaria is the sole constant of the community, indeed the only plant to attain more than occasional frequency throughout, and even the commoner companions are often found only as scattered individuals or in dispersed clumps.

Among these, the most frequent species are other tall herbs which are able to grow up among the meadowsweet and which, by mid-summer, can present a colourful spectacle with their flowering shoots projecting above the canopy of foliage. The commonest plants among this group are Angelica sylvestris, Valeriana officinalis and Rumex acetosa and, in the more striking vegetation of the Valeriana-Rumex sub-community, these become preferentially frequent and are often accompanied by Lychnis flos-cuculi, Succisa pratensis, Geum rivale and sprawls of Galium palustre. In other stands, such species are more scarce but Urtica dioica is very common and, with Cirsium arvense, Epilobium hirsutum, Eupatorium cannabinum and Vicia cracca, helps to characterise an Urtica-Vicia sub-community.