SD8: Festuca rubra-Galium verum fixed dune grassland

Summary

Synonymy

Dune grassland Tansley 1911, 1939, Gimingham 1964a; Dune pasture Gimingham 1964a p.p.; Machair Gimingham 1964a, 1974, Ran well 1974; Euphrasio-Festucetum arenariae Birse 1980; Astragalo-Festucetum arenariae Birse 1980 p.p.

Constant species

Festuca rubra, Galium verum, Lotus corniculatus, Plantago lanceolata, Poa pratensis, Trifolium repens.

Rare species

Acaena novae-zelandiae, Astragalus danicus, Dianthus deltoides, Epipactis atrorubens, Mibora minima, Oxytropis halleri, Primula scotica.

Physiognomy

The Festuca rubra-Galium verum community consists of dune vegetation in which Festuca rubra and a variety of other grasses, dicotyledons and mosses make up a generally closed sward, occasionally rank, but usually just a decimetre or two tall, and sometimes closely cropped to a short, tussocky turf. Ammophila arenaria, the usual dominant with us on more mobile sand, remains common overall, but it is no longer a constant feature of the vegetation: indeed, in some sub-communities here, it is only occasional. Moreover, even where it is still frequent, the cover is rarely extensive and often reduced to small tufts of shoots noticeably lacking in vigour. F. rubra, by contrast, is usually abundant, the typical dominant in the sward, and commonly recorded as var. or ssp. arenaria with its far-creeping rhizome systems and rather lax tussocks of stiff leaves (Hubbard 1968, Tutin et al. 1980). Other grasses are generally subordinate but some can be quite common. Poa pratensis agg., for example, often obviously P. subcaerulea, is a constant of the community, though only exceptionally of more than moderate cover, and in regions of moister climate Holcus lanatus becomes very frequent.