NVC community W7 (

Alnus glutinosa ''Alnus glutinosa'', the common alder, black alder, European alder, European black alder, or just alder, is a species of tree in the family Betulaceae, native to most of Europe, southwest Asia and northern Africa. It thrives in wet locations ...

Fraxinus excelsior ''Fraxinus excelsior'', known as the ash, or European ash or common ash to distinguish it from other types of ash, is a flowering plant species in the olive family Oleaceae. It is native throughout mainland Europe east to the Caucasus and Albo ...

- Lysimachia nemorum woodland) is one of the

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, 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 sunlight and limited shade (see ...

communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system; it is one of seven woodland communities in the NVC classed as " wet woodlands".

Community composition

Alder is often not as abundant as in the previous types. Ash and/or silver birch are frequent with mixtures of common sallow, hazel and hawthorn in the

shrub layer Stratification in the field of ecology refers to the vertical layering of a habitat; the arrangement of vegetation in layers. It classifies the layers (sing. ''stratum'', pl. ''strata'') of vegetation largely according to the different heights to w ...

. Ground flora includes meadow sweet, yellow pimpernel, lady fern, rough stalked meadow grass, creeping soft grass, creeping buttercup and/or golden saxifrage. These are found on base rich flushes with gleyed mineral soils.

Distribution

It is the commonest alder type in upland woods; it does occur in the lowlands but often in a rather fragmentary fashion along streams.

References

Rodwell, J. S. John S. Rodwell (1946 – present) is an ecologist who was based at the University of Lancaster, noted for his role in the development of the British National Vegetation Classification and as editor of the five volumes of ''British Plant Commu ...

(1991) '' British Plant Communities Volume 1 - Woodlands and scrub'' (hardback), (paperback) {{NVC-WS W01