31.412 - Alpide dwarf Vaccinium wind heaths

Classification des habitats du Paléarctique (2001)

Description

Very low, single-stratum, carpets of prostrate Vaccinium spp. and lichens, of windswept, mostly snowfree, localities in the alpine belt of the high mountains of the Alpine system, for the most part Vaccinium-dominated facies of the trailing azalea communities, in which Loiseleuria procumbens often accompanies Vaccinium myrtillus, Vaccinium vitis-idaea or Vaccinium uliginosum, the latter represented, as in 31.411, 31.44 and 31.4A, by the distinctive low, small-leaved, creeping, mat-forming entity variously referred to as Vaccinium gaultherioides, Vaccinium uliginosum ssp. microphyllum, Vaccinium alpina, Vaccinium pubescens, Vaccinium uliginosum ssp. pubescens.

Correspondances phytosociologiques

Loiseleurio-Cetrarietum p., Arctostaphylo-Loiseleurietum p., Gymnomitrio concinnati-Loiseleurietum procumbentis p., Empetro-Vaccinietum gaultherioidis

Bibliography

Devillers P., Devillers-Terschuren J. & Vander Linden C., 2001. PHYSIS Palaearctic Habitat Classification Database. Updated to 10 December 2001. Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles, Bruxelles. (Source)

Ellenberg, 1963, 1988; Beldie and Dihoru, 1968; Coldea, 1991: 384.