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Vegetation of open habitats in the British National Vegetation Classification system

UK plant community type

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  • 2 chapters

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Introduction

The open habitat communities of the NVC were described in Volume 5 of British Plant Communities, first published in 2000, along with the three groups of maritime communities (shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities, salt-marsh communities and maritime cliff communities).

In total, 42 open habitat communities have been identified.

The open habitat communities consist of eight distinct subgroups:

  • six arable weed and trackside communities of light, less-fertile acid soils (OV1, OV2, OV3, OV4, OV5 and OV6)
  • eight arable weed and wasteland communities of fertile loams and clays (OV7, OV8, OV9, OV10, OV11, OV12, OV13 and OV14)
  • three arable weed communities of light, limey soils (OV15, OV16 and OV17)
  • six gateway, trackside and courtyard communities (OV18, OV19, OV20, OV21, OV22 and OV23)
  • four tall-herb weed communities (OV24, OV25, OV26 and OV27)
  • five communities typical of periodically inundated habitats (OV28, OV29, OV30, OV32 and OV33)
  • four dwarf-rush communities of ephemeral ponds (OV31, OV34, OV35 and OV36)
  • six communities of crevice, scree and spoil vegetation (OV37, OV38, OV39, OV40, OV41 and OV42)

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