Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Preamble
- Salt-marsh communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- Shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- SD1: Rumex crispus-Glaucium flavum shingle community
- SD2: Honkenya peploides-Cakile maritima strandline community
- SD3: Matricaria maritima-Galium aparine strandline community
- SD4: Elymus farctus ssp. boreali-atlanticus foredune community
- SD5: Leymus arenarius mobile dune community
- SD6: Ammophila arenaria mobile dune community
- SD7: Ammophila arenaria-Festuca rubra semi-fixed dune community
- SD8: Festuca rubra-Galium verum fixed dune grassland
- SD9: Ammophila arenaria-Arrhenatherum elatius dune grassland
- SD10: Carex arenaria dune community
- SD11: Carex arenaria-Cornicularia aculeata dune community
- SD12: Carex arenaria-Festuca ovina-Agrostis capillaris dune grassland
- SD13: Sagina nodosa-Bryum pseudotriquetrum dune-slack community
- SD14: Salix repens-Campylium stellatum dune-slack community
- SD15: Salix repens-Calliergon cuspidatum dune-slack community
- SD16: Salix repens-Holcus lanatus dune-slack community
- SD17: Potentilla anserina-Carex nigra dune-slack community
- SD18: Hippophae rhamnoides dune scrub
- SD19: Phleum arenarium-Arenaria serpyllifolia dune annual community: Tortulo-Phleetum arenariae (Massart 1908) Br.-Bl. & de Leeuw 1936
- 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
SD5: Leymus arenarius mobile dune community
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- Preface and Acknowledgements
- Preamble
- Salt-marsh communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- Shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities
- COMMUNITY DESCRIPTIONS
- SD1: Rumex crispus-Glaucium flavum shingle community
- SD2: Honkenya peploides-Cakile maritima strandline community
- SD3: Matricaria maritima-Galium aparine strandline community
- SD4: Elymus farctus ssp. boreali-atlanticus foredune community
- SD5: Leymus arenarius mobile dune community
- SD6: Ammophila arenaria mobile dune community
- SD7: Ammophila arenaria-Festuca rubra semi-fixed dune community
- SD8: Festuca rubra-Galium verum fixed dune grassland
- SD9: Ammophila arenaria-Arrhenatherum elatius dune grassland
- SD10: Carex arenaria dune community
- SD11: Carex arenaria-Cornicularia aculeata dune community
- SD12: Carex arenaria-Festuca ovina-Agrostis capillaris dune grassland
- SD13: Sagina nodosa-Bryum pseudotriquetrum dune-slack community
- SD14: Salix repens-Campylium stellatum dune-slack community
- SD15: Salix repens-Calliergon cuspidatum dune-slack community
- SD16: Salix repens-Holcus lanatus dune-slack community
- SD17: Potentilla anserina-Carex nigra dune-slack community
- SD18: Hippophae rhamnoides dune scrub
- SD19: Phleum arenarium-Arenaria serpyllifolia dune annual community: Tortulo-Phleetum arenariae (Massart 1908) Br.-Bl. & de Leeuw 1936
- 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
Synonymy
Ammophiletum arenariae Tansley 1911, 1939 p.p.; Elymo-Ammophiletum arenariae Br.-Bl. & De Leeuw 1936 p.p.; Leymus arenarius consocies Bond 1952; Ammophila arenaria stands Gimingham 1964a p.p.; Potentillo-Elymetum arenariae (Raunkiaer 1965) Tx. 1966 sensu Birse 1980.
Constant species
Leymus arenarius.
Physiognomy
The Leymus arenarius community consists of open to locally dense stands of dune vegetation dominated by the tall and tussocky perennial grass Leymus arenarius. It is a rhizomatous plant, able to colonise and fix mobile sand and keep pace with substantial accumulation by upward and outward extension of its stout buried stems, such that the robust glaucous shoots, often well over 1 m high, can be found emerging from dunes that have grown to several metres tall (Trail 1904, Bond 1952).
No other species is constant throughout, but Elymus farctus is locally common, invading foreshore sand ahead of or together with the Leymus and sometimes remaining as a subsidiary and shorter element to the cover here, though only thickening up in vegetation which is best regarded as transitional to Elymus farctus foredunes. Ammophila arenaria is likewise never a prominent feature here, but it is a characteristic colonist of wind-blown sand along with or subsequent to Leymus and can be found as an occasional in the community, going on to exceed the lyme grass in frequency and abundance among the various kinds of Ammophila dunes. Then, in some stands, Festuca rubra is quite common with Elymus repens sometimes marking out places where there has been incorporation of organic detritus.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- British Plant Communities , pp. 148 - 152Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000