S912 Lowland and collinar riverine Salix scrub

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Description

Willow thickets along watercourses, in areas recently or chronically disturbed by floods or, at higher elevations, as a stable riverine community associated to headwaters.

Protection

Mountain stable stands are protected under the code 4080 ("Sub-Arctic Salix spp scrub") by the EU Habitat Directive. Those disturbance-related rich in Salix eleagnos may be interpreted as representing 3240 ("Alpine rivers and their ligneous vegetation with Salix elaeagnos"), but the geographical and hydrographical conditions stated in its official definition advise against such conclusion quite definitely.

Floristic Composition

Frequent species

Salix purpurea 69%, Salix triandra 48%, Salix eleagnos 48%, Salix atrocinerea 46%, Equisetum arvense 36%, Salix cantabrica 35%, Populus nigra 33%, Salix salviifolia 32%, Alnus glutinosa aggr. 27%, Mentha longifolia 26%, Fraxinus angustifolia 26%, Lythrum salicaria 23%, Brachypodium sylvaticum 22%, Epilobium hirsutum 20%, Fraxinus excelsior 20%, Eupatorium cannabinum 20%, Filipendula ulmaria 19%, Clematis vitalba 17%, Scrophularia auriculata 17%, Corylus avellana 17%, Solanum dulcamara 16%, Phalaroides arundinacea 16%, Ranunculus repens 15%, Urtica dioica 14%, Mentha aquatica 14%, Calystegia sepium 14%, Rosa canina aggr. 14%, Lycopus europaeus 14%, Cornus sanguinea 13%, Mentha suaveolens 13%, Rubus ulmifolius 13%, Lysimachia vulgaris 13%, Saponaria officinalis 12%, Rumex conglomeratus 11%, Persicaria maculosa 11%, Crataegus monogyna 10%, Frangula alnus 10%, Salix alba 10%, Agrostis stolonifera 10%, Heracleum sphondylium 9%, Potentilla reptans 9%, Jacobaea aquatica 9%, Rubus caesius 8%, Euphorbia amygdaloides 8%, Geranium robertianum 8%, Oenanthe crocata 8%, Chaerophyllum hirsutum 8%, Valeriana pyrenaica 8%, Tussilago farfara 8%, Elymus caninus 8%, Vicia cracca 7%, Carex elata 7%, Viola riviniana aggr. 7%, Lotus pedunculatus 7%, Aquilegia vulgaris aggr. 7%, Cyperus eragrostis 7%, Rumex obtusifolius 6%, Angelica sylvestris 6%, Cyperus longus 6%, Teucrium scorodonia 6%, Lonicera periclymenum 6%, Poa nemoralis 6%, Angelica laevis 5%, Athyrium filix-femina 5%, Bryonia dioica 5%, Agrostis canina 5%, Hedera helix aggr. 5%, Helosciadium nodiflorum 5%, Rhamnus alpina 5%

Phytosociology

  • Salicetum cantabricae
  • Salicetum lambertiano-salviifoliae
  • Salicetum salviifoliae
  • Salicetum salviifolio-cantabricae

Relations with other habitat types

This shrubby formations behave as pioneer (through the highly dispersive, air-borne seeds of willows) or disturbance-resistant (through the constitutive capacity of willow to heal its wounds and to root through cuttings) stages of the riverine woodlands of the units T111 and T121. In mountain headwaters, cool in summer and prone to severe blizzards and heavy snowfalls in winter, those forests end up being unable to develop and this willow-scrub becomes the climax community, a role of pioneer-turned-dominant evoking that played by birches in zonal highlands (T1D7). The sizable internal diversity of this unit in the region is already quite reasonably formalised by EUNIS at level V through units S9121, S9124, S9125 and S9126.

Regional distribution

Known occurrences and potential area of occupancy of the habitat type in the study region.

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Citation: IBEROATLANTICA – Flora and Habitats of the Cantabrian Mixed Forests ecoregion.
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