Constant species

Galium aparine, Urtica dioica.

Rare species

Allium triquetrum.

Physiognomy

The Urtica dioica-Galium aparine community comprises generally species-poor tall-herb vegetation dominated by often densely abundant U. dioica, frequently growing over 1 m high by mid-summer. G. aparine is the only other constant throughout and it typically forms sprawls among the nettles. Poa trivialis is also common and locally quite extensive as a thin carpet of shoots over the ground and among the nettle stools. Through the community as a whole, no other species occurs with any frequency and, by late autumn, the bulk of the herbage collapses and is rapidly incorporated through the winter to leave ground that can be virtually bare.

Sub-communities

Typical sub-community. Here, the usual very dense nettle and goosegrass cover has scattered plants of Cirsium arvense and occasional Bromus sterilis. Seaside stands often have Smyrnium olusatrum, sometimes in local abundance.

Arrhenatherum elatius-Rubus fruticosus agg. sub-community. In this vegetation, the cover of nettle is not usually so thick and there are scattered tussocks of Arrhenatherum elatius, patches of Rubus fruticosus agg. and, by early summer, emergent flowering shoots of first, Anthriscus sylvestris, and then Heracleum sphondylium. In somewhat more open places, there can be seen Taraxacum officinale agg., Lolium perenne, Dactylis glomerata, Bromus mollis, Achillea millefolium and Potentilla reptans while Hedera helix can form a patchy ground carpet.