Name:
(Carex interior, Carex lurida) - Carex leptalea - Parnassia grandifolia - Rhynchospora capillacea Herbaceous Vegetation
Reference:
Midwestern Ecology Working Group...
Description:
This fen community type is found in the Ozarks region of the United States. Stands occurs on the sideslopes of hills in narrow valleys, bases of bluffs, rock ledges, and terraces, where the soil or substrate is saturated by calcareous groundwater seepage. Soils are mucky peat or mineral, with pH above 6.5, and very shallow (0-40 cm), depending on natural disturbance and slope. The parent material is a mixture of gravel and dolomite with fragments of deeply weathered bedrock present. The bedrock strata are exposed, especially in hanging fens where the slope is greater than 35 degrees. Hydrophytic plants dominate this mixed grass or sedge fen that is a complex of zoned vegetation. Type 1) saturated areas dominated by tussock sedges such as Carex interior and Carex lurida; Type 2) deep muck saturated areas, dominated by those sedges and by Carex hystericina, Carex suberecta, and the shrub Alnus serrulata; Type 3) marly ooze areas dominated by Carex leptalea, Rhynchospora capillacea, and Scleria verticillata; Type 4) drier areas or margins dominated by Andropogon gerardii, Rudbeckia fulgida var. umbrosa, and Parnassia grandifolia. Characteristic species include Menyanthes trifoliata and Pogonia ophioglossoides. Other species present in most examples include Carex hystericina, Castilleja coccinea, Fuirena simplex, Helenium autumnale, Lobelia siphilitica, Schoenoplectus americanus (= Scirpus americanus), Scirpus atrovirens, Scirpus pendulus (= Scirpus lineatus), Selaginella apoda, Packera aurea (= Senecio aureus), and Oligoneuron rigidum var. rigidum (= Solidago rigida ssp. rigida). Deep muck fens may also contain Thelypteris palustris var. pubescens, Lysimachia quadriflora, Selaginella eclipes, Rudbeckia fulgida var. umbrosa, Carex granularis, Oxypolis rigidior, Physocarpus opulifolius, Pedicularis lanceolata, Cardamine bulbosa, and Viola cucullata.
Accession Code:
VB.CC.19520.CAREXINTERIORCA
Plot-observations of this Community Concept:
0
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