SD3: Matricaria maritima-Galium aparine strandline community

Summary

Synonymy

Mertensia maritima localities Scott 1963c; Atriplex glabriuscula-Rumex crispus Association Birks 1973.

Constant species

Galium aparine, Matricaria maritima.

Rare species

Mertensia maritima, Polygonum oxyspermum spp. raii.

Physiognomy

The Matricaria maritima-Galium aparine community consists of generally open and often patchy strandline vegetation in which Matricaria maritima, various Atriplex spp. and the annual weeds Galium aparine and Stellaria media are the most frequent and prominent elements. Among the oraches, A. glabriuscula is especially common here, but A. prostrata and A. patula also occur occasionally, and each of these can be found in some abundance. The more local A. laciniata is sometimes recorded, too, though usually as sparse scattered individuals, and the rare A. praecox can be seen in close association with this vegetation at some of its few localities around sea lochs in western Scotland (Taschereau 1985).

Beta vulgaris ssp. maritima, a very characteristic plant of shingle strandlines in southern Britain, is hardly ever found here, and Honkenya peploides and Cakile maritima, which are a constant feature of sandy foreshore vegetation around our coasts, tend to be only infrequent. Rumex crispus var. littoreus, however, remains fairly common and it can be conspicuous with its tall flowering shoots, and there may be occasional patches of Sonchus asper, S. arvensis, Cochlearia officinalis, Chamomilla suaveolens and Silene vulgaris ssp. maritima.