Constant species

Agrostis stolonifera, Glyceria maxima, Myosotis scorpioides, Ranunculus sceleratus, Rorippa islandica.

Physiognomy

The Ranunculetum scelerati includes open or closed carpets of vegetation, locally lush, in which mixtures of Myosotis scorpioides, Ranunculus sceleratus, Rorippa islandica and Agrostis stolonifera occur, often among scattered shoots of Glyceria maxima. Veronica catenata, V. beccabunga, Nasturtium officinale agg. and Berula erecta are occasional to frequent and there are sometimes small tussocks of Deschampsia cespitosa, Holcus lanatus, Juncus inflexus and J. effusus. Small patches of Lemna gibba or Callitriche stagnalis can occur scattered on wet mud or shallow pools among the vegetation. Typically, Bidens tripartita and knotweeds are, at most, occasional.

Habitat

This is a community of very nitrogen-rich, intermittently wetted and disturbed ground such as the heavily-manured surrounds of ponds and streams where stock water, along nutrient-enriched seasonal watercourses and over wet ditch dredgings.

As far as moisture and disturbance requirements are concerned, this community is probably essentially the same as the Rorippa-Filaginella vegetation, being dependent on the exposure of moist soils and clays in the warmer weather of spring when ephemerals are best placed to capitalise on the congenial conditions. Hence, disturbance may often come, not from flooding, but from trampling by stock or by physical operations like the cleaning of silt from streams and ditches.