NVC community W7 is one of the woodland

Woodland and scrub communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system

This article gives an overview of the woodland and scrub communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system.-Introduction:The woodland and scrub communities of the NVC were described in Volume 1 of British Plant Communities, first published in 1991.In total, 25 woodland/scrub...

 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 seven woodland communities in the NVC classed as "wet woodland

Wet woodland

Wet woodland is a biodiversity habitat in the United Kingdom.This is a woodland that occurs on poorly drained or seasonally wet soils. They are typical of river valley, the surroundings of mires and raised bog, the transition zones between open water and drier ground, and beside small winding...

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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. Ground flora includes meadow sweet, yellow pimpernell, lady fern, rough stalked meadow grass, creeping soft grass, creeping buttercup and/or golden saxifage. 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.