Name:
Dasiphora fruticosa - Carex lasiocarpa - Trichophorum spp. Alkaline Fen Group
Reference:
NatureServe Biotics 2019
Description:
[The content for this group summary is under review with Canadian ecologists; the current text overlaps with ~Eastern North American Boreal Alkaline Fen Group (G804)$$]. These fens, distributed across glaciated eastern and central subboreal (Laurentian-Acadian) regions of North America, develop in open basins where lateral groundwater flow through circumneutral to calcareous parent materials creates moderately to strongly alkaline conditions. They are found on level to gently sloping surfaces, or in closed wet depressions (sometimes as floating mats), and along wetland margins and lake and river shores. The shore fens are occasionally flooded, and so are included here because flooding tends to create moderately alkaline conditions. The vegetation may be graminoid-dominated, shrub-dominated, or a patchwork of the two, with broad-leaved non-ericaceous shrubs typically dominant. There is a discontinuous to absent layer of <i>Sphagnum</i> peatmoss (<80% cover), with brown mosses (<i>Drepanocladus, Calliergon, Tomentypnum, Campylium</i>) present to dominant. Broad-leaved non-ericaceous shrubs (<i>Myrica gale, Dasiphora fruticosa ssp. floribunda, Betula pumila, Betula glandulosa, Salix</i> spp., <i>Alnus incana, Rhamnus alnifolia</i>) exceed cover of ericaceous shrubs, although some shore fens may be dominated by <i>Chamaedaphne calyculata</i>. Thin-leaved graminoids include <i>Carex lasiocarpa, Carex livida, Carex interior, Carex limosa, Muhlenbergia glomerata, Trichophorum alpinum</i>, and <i>Eriophorum viridicarinatum</i>. A wide diversity of herbs is found, especially <i>Menyanthes trifoliata, Equisetum fluviatile, Sarracenia purpurea, Triantha glutinosa</i>, and <i>Triglochin maritima</i>. In the tree layer, <i>Picea mariana</i> is rare to absent, <i>Larix laricina</i> is variable, and other conifers and hardwoods may be present (e.g., <i>Acer rubrum, Thuja occidentalis</i>). Minerotrophic <i>Sphagnum</i> dominates the substrate among medium fens, but brown mosses become increasingly common under richer conditions. <i>Campylium stellatum</i> is an indicator brown moss bryophyte.
Accession Code:
urn:lsid:vegbank.org:commConcept:39988-{0D259594-18F9-419F-A63C-9CB6A41EB739}
Plot-observations of this Community Concept:
0
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