NVC community H4 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 relatively localised community. There are four 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)
• Tormentil
  Tormentil
  Common Tormentil is a herbaceous perennial belonging to the rose family , also known as Septfoil or simply as "tormentil" .-Characteristics:It is a low, clumb-forming plant with slender, procumbent...
  
   (Potentilla erecta)
• Western Gorse (Ulex gallii)

The following rare species are associated with the community:

• Bristle Bent (Agrostis curtisii)
• Soft-leaved Sedge (Carex montana)
• Dorset Heath (Erica ciliaris)
• Cornish Heath
  Cornish heath
  The Cornish heath is a species of heath that bears pink flowers and mid-green foliage. This is a shrub, reaching 0.75 m by 0.75 m. Its English name comes from the fact that, in Great Britain, it is only found on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall, where the unusual geology gives rise to the alkaline...
  
   (Erica vagans)

Distribution

This community is confined to southwest England, from Dorset

Dorset

Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

 and Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

 westwards, and the southern coastal region of Wales.

Subcommunities

There are four subcommunities:

• the Agrostis curtisii - Erica cinerea subcommunity
• the Festuca ovina subcommunity
• the Erica tetralix subcommunity
• the Scirpus cespitosus subcommunity