This article gives an overview of the mesotrophic grassland 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.

Introduction

The mesotrophic grassland communities of the NVC were described in Volume 3 of British Plant Communities, first published in 1992, along with the calcicolous grassland communities

Calcicolous grasslands in the British National Vegetation Classification system

This article gives an overview of the calcicolous grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system.-Introduction:The calcicolous grassland communities of the NVC were described in Volume 3 of British Plant Communities, first published in 1992, along with the...

 and the calcifugous grasslands and montane communities.

In total, 13 mesotrophic grassland communities have been identified.

The mesotrophic grassland communities consist of:

• two communities in which False Oat-grass is the characteristic grass species (one of these, community MG1
  British NVC community MG1
  British NVC community MG1 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system.It is a very widespread community throughout the British lowlands...
  
  , is widespread throughout Britain
  United Kingdom
  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
  
  ; the other, MG2
  British NVC community MG2
  British NVC community MG2 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system.It is a localised community found only in northern England...
  
  , is confined to northern England
  England
  England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
  
  ).
• four communities of well-drained permanent pastures and meadows, two of which (MG5
  British NVC community MG5
  British NVC community MG5 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of four such communities associated with well-drained permanent pastures and meadows.This community is widely distributed community though common only in...
  
   and MG6
  British NVC community MG6
  British NVC community MG6 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of four such communities associated with well-drained permanent pastures and meadows.This community is a virtually ubiquitous community of the British...
  
  ) are widespread and the other two (MG3
  British NVC community MG3
  British NVC community MG3 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of four such communities associated with well-drained permanent pastures and meadows.This community is a localised community of northern England...
  
   and MG4
  British NVC community MG4
  British NVC community MG4 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of four such communities associated with well-drained permanent pastures and meadows.This community is a localised community of central England...
  
  ) more localised
• a single community (MG7) covering a variety of widespread types of Perennial Rye-grass long-term ley
• three widespread communities associated with poorly-drained permanent pastures (MG8
  British NVC community MG8
  British NVC community MG8 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of three communities associated with poorly-drained permanent pastures.It is a widespread but localised community of the British lowlands...
  
  , MG9
  British NVC community MG9
  British NVC community MG9 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of three communities associated with poorly-drained permanent pastures.It is a widespread community throughout the British lowlands...
  
  , MG10
  British NVC community MG10
  British NVC community MG10 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of three communities associated with poorly-drained permanent pastures.It is a widespread community throughout the British lowlands...
  
  )
• three grass-dominated inundation communities, one of which, MG13
  British NVC community MG13
  British NVC community MG13 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of three types of mesotrophic grassland classified as grass-dominated inundation communities.This community is widely distributed...
  
  , is widespread, the other two, MG11
  British NVC community MG11
  British NVC community MG11 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of three types of mesotrophic grassland classified as grass-dominated inundation communities.It is a quite localised community...
  
   and MG12, more localised

List of mesotrophic grassland communities

The following is a list of the communities that make up this category:

• MG1 Arrhenatherum elatius grassland Arrhenatheretum elatioris Br.-Bl. 1919

• MG2 Arrhenatherum elatius - Filipendula ulmaria tall-herb grassland Filipendulo-Arrhenatheretum elatioris Shimwell 1968a

• MG3 Anthoxanthum odoratum - Geranium sylvaticum grassland

• MG4 Alopecurus pratensis - Sanguisorba officinalis grassland

• MG5 Cynosurus cristatus - Centaurea nigra grassland Centaureo-Cynosuretum cristati Br.-Bl. & Tx 1952

• MG6 Lolium perenne - Cynosurus cristatus grassland Lolio-Cynosuretum cristati (Br.-Bl. & De Leeuw 1936) R. Tx 1937

• MG7 Lolium perenne leys and related grasslands Lolio-Plantaginion Sissingh 1969 p.p.

• MG8 Cynosurus cristatus - Caltha palustris grassland

• MG9 Holcus lanatus - Deschampsia cespitosa grassland

• MG10 Holcus lanatus - Juncus effusus rush-pasture Holco-Juncetum effusi Page 1980

• MG11 Festuca rubra - Agrostis stolonifera - Potentilla anserina grassland

• MG12 Festuca arundinacea grassland Potentillo-Festucetum arundinaceae Nordhagen 1940
  British NVC community MG12 (Festuca arundinacea grassland)
  British NVC community MG12 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of three types of mesotrophic grassland classified as grass-dominated inundation communities.It is a fairly localised coastal community...
  
  

• MG13 Agrostis stolonifera - Alopecurus geniculatus grassland