Synonymy

Molinietum caeruleae Moss 1911, Rankin 1911a, b, Smith 1911, Crampton 1911, Stapledon 1914, Jefferies 1915, Fraser 1933, Tansley 1939, ail p.p.; Molinia-Myrica nodum McVean & Ratcliffe 1962, Adam et al. 1977; Molinia caerulea grassland McVean & Ratcliffe 1962, Edgell 1969, Meek 1976, Meade 1981 p.p.; Junco acutiflori-Molinietum O’Sullivan 1968, Hill & Evans 1978, Ratcliffe & Hattey 1982 p.p.; Festuco-Molinietum anthoxanthosum Evans et al. 1977; Molinia flushes Ferreira 1978; Wet Grassy Juncus Heath NCC Devon Heathland Report 1980; Myricetum galis Birse 1980; Molinia caerulea-Myrica gale community Wheeler 1980c p.p.; Molinia-Potentilla erecta nodum Bignal & Curtis 1981; Erica vagans-Schoenus nigricans heath Hopkins 1983 p.p.

Constant species

Molinia caerulea, Potentilla erecta.

Rare species

Agrostis curtisii, Erica vagans, Lobelia urens.

Physiognomy

The Molinia caerulea-Potentilla erecta mire encompasses vegetation of quite widely differing floristics and physiognomy, but characterised throughout by the overwhelming abundance of Molinia. This is a feature which helps distinguish the community from rather similar vegetation types of the Juncion acutiflori and Caricion nigrae, where Molinia can occur occasionally but where dominance is usually held by rushes or small sedges, themselves quite frequent here, though typically of subsidiary cover. monlinia-dominance is not, however, confined to this community in western Britain: throughout the range of the Molinia-Potentilla mire, this grass is a very common element in lowland Erico-Sphagnion blanket mires and Ericion tetralicis wet heaths and it shows a distressing tendency to increase its abundance in these vegetation types in certain circumstances, bring ing them very close in composition and structure to this community. Indeed, many references to a Molinietum or to ‘Molinia grassland’ in the British literature (e.g. Moss 1911, Rankin 1911a, b, Smith 1911a, Crampton 1911, Stapledon 1914, Jefferies 1915, Fraser 1933, Tansley 1939, McVean & Ratcliffe 1962, Meade 1981) and to other more precisely-defined units, like the Festuco-Molinietum of Evans et al. (1977) and the Molinia-Potentilla nodum of Bignal & Curtis (1981), include vegetation of this kind together with what is here termed Molinia-Potentilla mire, and bear ample testimony to the problems of separation of these different communities in the more oceanic parts of the country.