Login | Datasets | Logout
 

View Community Concepts - Detail

Carex exsiccata Wet Meadow | NatureServe Biotics 2019
  click to update datacart
Name: Carex exsiccata Wet Meadow
Reference: NatureServe Biotics 2019
Description: This herbaceous vegetation occupies small to large shallow basins on a variety of soil types, mostly seasonally flooded to perennially saturated organic, silt loam, or sand. This association is widely distributed in northwestern Oregon and Washington at elevations ranging from 30 to 1525 m (100-5000 feet). The association is present but uncommon at lower elevations along the coast and in interior valleys of western Oregon, and becomes more common at higher elevations in the Coast and Cascade ranges. The composition is diverse with no obvious segregate types. Stands are usually flooded seasonally to a depth of 30 to 90 cm (1-3 feet) and may dry out by midsummer with the water table just below the soil surface. <i>Thuja plicata</i> and <i>Pseudotsuga menziesii</i> were recorded from plots but are peripheral or restricted to elevated microsites. Eleven different shrub species are reported, depending on elevation, but most occur in trace amounts except for <i>Spiraea douglasii, Vaccinium uliginosum</i>, and <i>Alnus incana</i>. Stands are usually nearly monotypic reed swamp of <i>Carex exsiccata</i> in standing water or bare mud, but sometimes it occurs with other species in wet lawns. Average cover of <i>Carex exsiccata</i> is 69%, with cover in some plots as much as 100%. More than 90 other species are present in the herb layer, the great diversity due mainly to the variety of elevations at which the association occurs. Most of the other species occur only in trace amounts. Those forming significant patches include <i>Veronica scutellata, Nuphar polysepala, Deschampsia cespitosa, Lysichiton americanus, Torreyochloa pallida var. pauciflora, Juncus patens</i>, and <i>Carex hystericina</i>. Some stands were no doubt grazed by livestock in the past, and elk and deer use may be high locally. 
Accession Code: urn:lsid:vegbank.org:commConcept:32194-{1D0B06B6-0D8B-4BAD-B85C-F5A4191D501A}
Plot-observations of this Community Concept: 0
      Party Perspective according to: NatureServe (organization)
Perspective from: 06-Apr-2012 to: ongoing
      Names:   UID: ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.689506 NatureServe ExplorerNatureServe Explorer logo
  Code: CEGL003312
  Translated: Western Inflated Sedge Wet Meadow
  Scientific: Carex exsiccata Wet Meadow
(convergence) and Synonyms:
(similar) Carex exsiccata Herbaceous Vegetation