SM23: Spergularia marina-Puccinellia distans salt-marsh community: Puccinellietum distantis Feekes (1934) 1945

Summary

Synonymy

Sperguletum marinae Tyler 1969.

Constant species

Spergularia marina, Puccinellia distans, P. maritima.

Physiognomy

The Puccinellietum distantis is a generally open association of scattered but often abundant individuals of Spergularia marina, Puccinellia distans and P. maritima with rather variable amounts of Agrostis stolonifera and sparse records for a variety of salt-marsh species (especially in coastal sites) and ruderal glycophytes. An algal mat is sometimes conspicuous in coastal stands but bryophytes are always rare.

Sub-communities

Sampling of coastal stands of the association has been insufficient to detect the existence of well-defined subcommunities but individual stands bear some resemblance to the Puccinellietum distantis polygonetosum R. Tx. 1956 emend. Beeftink 1962 (with Polygonum aviculare) and the Puccinellietum distantis pholiuretosum (with Parapholis strigosa) described from The Netherlands (Beeftink 1962, 1965, 1977a). Lee (1977) encountered inland stands similar to the ‘initial’ (with Atriplex hastata) and ‘degraded’ (without A. hastata and Spergularia marina) sub-associations recognised on Polish coastal marshes (Piotrowski 1974) and to the Puccinellietum distantis juncetosum Westhoff 1947 (with Juncus ambiguus Guss.) described from the Netherlands (Beeftink 1962). Lee's (1977) asteretosum is probably best considered in relation to the Aster tripolium communities of salt-marshes and brackish habitats. Further sampling is necessary to establish the validity of these sub-divisions in Britain.