SD7: Ammophila arenaria-Festuca rubra semi-fixed dune community

Summary

Synonymy

Ammophiletum arenariae Moss 1906, Tansley 1911, 1939, all p.p.; Elymo-Ammophiletum arenariae Br.-Bl. & De Leeuw 1936.

Constant species

Ammophila arenaria, Festuca rubra, Hypochoeris radicata, Poa pratensis s. l.

Rare species

Acaena novae-zelandiae, Epipactis dunensis, Euphorbia paralias, Mibora minima, Oenothera stricta, Vulpia fasciculata.

Physiognomy

The Ammophila arenaria-Festuca rubra community is the major vegetation type of less mobile coastal sands where Ammophila arenaria is still usually the dominant, but where conditions are such as to allow the development of a fairly rich and often abundant associated flora over the stabilising dune surface. The marram tussocks may be big, with the shoots generally reaching 60–100 cm in height, but the tillers are not so densely packed or vigorous as in younger plants, and the accretion of bare sand among them much less rapid than in the earlier stages of colonisation. Where the tussocks are growing close together, the canopy of arching foliage can be quite extensive, but beneath this and particularly among more widely spaced marram, a variety of other herbs and also bryophytes can gain a hold, forming a patchy carpet of shorter vegetation that may be of locally high cover.