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
SD4: Elymus farctus ssp. boreali-atlanticus foredune 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
Agropyretum juncei Moss 1906, Tansley 1911, 1939; Agropyretum boreo-atlanticum (Warming 1909) Br.-Bl. & De Leeuw 1936; Elymo-Agropyretum junceiforme Tx. 1955; Agropyron junceiforme stands Gimingham 1964a; Elymo-Agropyretum boreo-atlanticum Tx. (1937) 1967; Sociation à Agropyron junceiforme Géhu & Géhu 1969.
Constant species
Elymus farctus ssp. boreali-atlanticus.
Rare species
Euphorbia paralias.
Physiognomy
The Elymus farctus community comprises generally open, though often locally dense, vegetation in stretches of wind-blown sand, in which the dominant is the perennial grass long familiar as Agropyron junceiforme, but now known as Elymus farctus ssp. boreali-atlanticus. It is a rhizomatous plant, growing in the early stages after colonisation as small rosettes of shoots, often appressed to the surface, but then spreading outwards by means of its long and wiry underground stems and putting up vertical sympodial branches which by repeated tillering can keep pace with rapid though quite modest accumulation of sand (Nicholson 1952). Young colonies of the grass often have little more than small, low domes of sand around them but, where accretion progresses, distinct dunes, sometimes 1 m or more high, can develop. The grass shoots grow 20–60 cm tall and may be closely massed where the plants are especially vigorous, the glaucous foliage contrasting sharply with the bright yellow of the mobile sand.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- British Plant Communities , pp. 144 - 147Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000