NVC community H3 is one of the heath

Heaths in the British National Vegetation Classification system

This article gives an overview of the heath communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system.-Introduction:The heath communities of the NVC were described, along with the mire communities, in Volume 2 of British Plant Communities, first published in 1991.In total, 22 heath...

 communities in the British National Vegetation Classification

British National Vegetation Classification

The British National Vegetation Classification or NVC is a system of classifying natural habitat types in Great Britain according to the vegetation they contain....

 system. It is one of three communities which are considered transitional between the lowland dry heaths and the wetter communities classified in the NVC as mires

Mires in the British National Vegetation Classification system

This article gives an overview of the mire communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system.-Introduction:The mire communities of the NVC were described in Volume 2 of British Plant Communities, first published in 1991, along with the heath communities.In total, 38 mire...

.

It is a very localised community. There are three subcommunities.

Community composition

The following constant species are found in this community:

• Bristle Bent (Agrostis curtisii)
• Heather
  Calluna
  Calluna vulgaris is the sole species in the genus Calluna in the family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing perennial shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found widely in Europe and Asia Minor on acidic soils in open sunny situations and in moderate shade...
  
   (Calluna vulgaris)
• Bell Heather (Erica cinerea)
• Cross-leaved Heath (Erica tetralix)
• Purple Moor-grass (Molinia caerulea)
• Dwarf Gorse (Ulex minor)

The following rare species are associated with the community:

• Bristle Bent (Agrostis curtisii)
• Dorset Heath (Erica ciliaris)
• Pale Dog-violet (Viola lactea)

Subcommunities

There are three subcommunities:

• the so-called typical subcommunity
• the Cladonia spp. subcommunity
• the Agrostis curtisii subcommunity