OV8: Veronica persica-Alopecurus myosuroides community: Alopecuro-Chamomilletum recutitae Wasscher 1941

Summary

Constant species

Alopecurus myosuroides, Bilderykia convolvolus, Elymus repens, Polygonum aviculare, Stellaria media, Veronica persica.

Physiognomy

The Alopecuro-Chamomilletum is the most distinctive weed assemblage in which the annual grass Alopecurus myosuroides is found. Its tufts can be very abundant here, along with Elymus repens, Polygonum aviculare and Stellaria media, each of which can also show locally high cover. Veronica persica and Bilderdykia convolvulus are also constant, though generally in smaller amounts.

The characteristic mayweed of this vegetation, Chamomilla recutita, is only occasional overall but Matricaria perforata is frequent, along with Chenopodium album, Capsella bursa-pastoris, Sinapis arvensis, Sonchus asper, Senecio vulgaris, Avena fatua, Poa annua, Plantago major, Polygonum persicaria and Cirsium arvense. Among the more common occasional are Convolvulus arvensis, Euphorbia helioscopa, Solanum nigrum, Urtica urens and the scarce goosefoot Chenopodium hybridum.

Habitat

This assemblage is typical of winter-sown cereals and other field crops on loamy and clayey soils that occur in the warmer and drier south-east of England but which are protected from drought by their heavy texture.

A. myosuroides is native across much of Europe but is only common in Britain in the more Continental parts of the country where the July mean is above 15 °C (Naylor 1972), being especially abundant in the southeast Midlands and East Anglia. It can get a head start among arable crops in this region by autumn germination and survive through the winter as a rosette, flowering from May to August of the following year.