NVC community W17 (''

Quercus petraea ''Quercus petraea'', commonly known as the sessile oak, Welsh oak, Cornish oak, Irish oak or durmast oak, is a species of oak tree native to most of Europe and into Anatolia and Iran. The sessile oak is the national tree of Ireland, and an un ...

Betula pubescens ''Betula pubescens'' (syn. ''Betula alba''), commonly known as downy birch and also as moor birch, white birch, European white birch or hairy birch, is a species of deciduous tree, native and abundant throughout northern Europe and northern Asia ...

Dicranum majus ''Dicranum majus'' is a species of moss belonging to the family Dicranaceae. It is native to the Northern Hemisphere The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is de ...

'' woodland) is one of the

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

communities A community is a Level of analysis, social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place (geography), place, set of Norm (social), norms, culture, religion, values, Convention (norm), customs, or Ide ...

in the

British National Vegetation Classification __NOTOC__ The British National Vegetation Classification or NVC is a system of classifying natural habitat types in Great Britain according to the vegetation they contain. A large scientific meeting of ecologists, botanists, and other related ...

system. It is one of the six communities falling in the "mixed deciduous and oak/birch woodlands" group. This is a widely distributed community in northern and western Britain and represents mossy deciduous woodland of the uplands. There are four subcommunities.

Community composition

Two constant species are found in the tree canopy of this community: * Sessile oak (''

'') * Downy birch (''

'') Eight constant species are found in the field and ground layers of this community: * Wavy hair grass (''

Deschampsia flexuosa ''Avenella flexuosa'', commonly known as wavy hair-grass, is a species of bunchgrass in the grass family widely distributed in Eurasia, Africa, South America, and North America. Description Wavy hair-grass, ''Avenella flexuosa'', has wiry leaves ...

'') * Greater fork-moss (''

'') * Glittering wood-moss (''

Hylocomium splendens ''Hylocomium splendens'', commonly known as glittering woodmoss, splendid feather moss, stairstep moss, and mountain fern moss, is a perennial clonal moss with a widespread distribution in Northern Hemisphere boreal forests. It is commonly found ...

'') * Waved silk-moss (''

Plagiothecium undulatum ''Plagiothecium undulatum'' (vernacular name: Wavy-leaved cotton moss) is a species of moss belonging to the family Plagiotheciaceae. It has a cosmopolitan distribution In biogeography, a cosmopolitan distribution is the range of a taxon t ...

'') * Red-stemmed feather-moss (''

Pleurozium schreberi ''Pleurozium schreberi'', the red-stemmed feathermoss or Schreber's big red stem moss, is a moss with a loose growth pattern. The prefix 'pleuro-' is derived from the Latin word for ribs, possibly referring to the way the branches extend from the ...

'') * Bank haircap moss (''

Polytrichum formosum ''Polytrichastrum formosum'', commonly known as the bank haircap moss, is a species of moss belonging to the family Polytrichaceae. It has a cosmopolitan distribution, found mostly in temperate latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere and especially ...

'') * Little shaggy-moss ('' Rhytidiadelphus loreus'') * Blueberry (''

Vaccinium myrtillus ''Vaccinium myrtillus'' or European blueberry is a Holarctic realm, holarctic species of shrub with edible fruit of blue color, known by the common names bilberry, blaeberry, wimberry, and whortleberry. It is more precisely called common bilberr ...

'')

Rare species A rare species is a group of organisms that are very uncommon, scarce, or infrequently encountered. This designation may be applied to either a plant or animal taxon, and is distinct from the term ''endangered species, endangered'' or ''threatened ...

associated with the community include ''

Hymenophyllum wilsonii ''Hymenophyllum wilsonii'', the Wilson's filmy-fern, is a small, fragile, perennial leptosporangiate fern which forms large dense colonies from creeping rhizomes. Distribution Confined to western Europe (Britain, Ireland, France, Norway, Spain ...

'' and a number of

oceanic Oceanic may refer to: *Of or relating to the ocean *Of or relating to Oceania **Oceanic climate **Oceanic languages **Oceanic person or people, also called "Pacific Islander(s)" Places * Oceanic, British Columbia, a settlement on Smith Island, ...

bryophytes Bryophytes () are a group of land plants ( embryophytes), sometimes treated as a taxonomic division referred to as Bryophyta '' sensu lato'', that contains three groups of non-vascular land plants: the liverworts, hornworts, and mosses. In t ...

Distribution

This community is widespread throughout upland areas of Britain. The subcommunities show some geographical localisation with W17a predominantly western and W17d predominantly eastern.

Subcommunities

There are four subcommunities: * W17a : the '' Isothecium myosuroides''-'' Diplophyllum albicans'' subcommunity * W17b : the so-called typical subcommunity * W17c : the ''

Anthoxanthum odoratum ''Anthoxanthum odoratum'' is a short-lived perennial plant, perennial grass, commonly known as sweet vernal grass, that is native to acidic grassland in Eurasia and northern Africa. It is grown as a lawn grass and a house plant, due to its swee ...

''-''

Agrostis capillaris ''Agrostis capillaris'', the common bent, colonial bent, or browntop, is a rhizomatous and stoloniferous perennial in the grass family (Poaceae). It is native to Eurasia and has been widely introduced in many parts of the world. Colonial be ...

'' subcommunity * W17d : the '' Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus'' subcommunity

References

* Rodwell, J. S. (1991) '' British Plant Communities Volume 1 - Woodlands and scrub'' (hardback), (paperback) {{NVC-WS

Community composition

Distribution

Subcommunities

References

Further reading