Title
Hercynian-southeast Central European beech forests (Fagus sylvatica), partly with Cardamine enneaphyllos, with Cardamine bulbifera, Lathyrus vernus
Geographical distribution
Country/territory
Czech Republic: Bohemian-Moravian hights („eskomoravská Vyso…ina); Sudetes, Bohemian Forest; Poland: Sudetes-Foreland, Silesian hilly country, western part of the south Polish highland (Czenstochauer Jura, western foreland of the Kreuzgebirge)
area frequency
25 polygons .
Scientific names of main plant communities and their most common synonyms (with author citation)
Dentario enneaphylli-Fagetum Oberdorfer 1957 ex W. & A. Matuszkiewicz 1960 (syn.: Fagetum sudeticum Preising 1938) - colline-submontane high altitude form. The characteristics of the association are distinctively weakend in this high altitude form in comparison to the montane form.
Structural feature of the main community(ies) (layers, life-forms, etc.)
Tall-growing beech cathedral forest with a closed canopy (80-90 %). The shrub layer is for the most part absent or only weakly developed. The herb layer has about a 60-90 % degree of coverage, populated mostly by dicotyledon herbs and tall, broad-leaved grasses. The moss layer is hardly developed at all, with only a few sparse bryophytes.
Dominant and most frequent species in different layers
Tree layer
Fagus sylvatica, occasionally as accompagnying tree species Acer pseudoplatanus, Carpinus betulus; Abies alba, Picea abies, Quercus robur and Quercus petraea are only sparsely occuring in special formations.
Shrub layer
Young growth of the beech (generally very sparsely)
Herb layer
Dryopteris filix-mas, Galium odoratum, Lamium galeobdolon, Oxalis acetosella, Cardamine bulbifera, Cardamine enneaphyllos, Lathyrus vernus, Hordelymus europaeus, Euphorbia dulcis, Hepatica nobilis, Stellaria holostea, Lamiastrum galeobdolon, Phyteuma spicatum, Polygonatum multiflorum, Asarum europaeum, Rubus sect. glandulosi, Sambucus racemosa, Senecio ovatus
Moss layer (incl. lichens)
Atrichum undulatum (small-scaled)
Diagnostically important species
Fagus sylvatica; Cardamine enneaphyllos, Hordelymus europaeus (both with a low presence degree), Cardamine bulbifera, Euphorbia dulcis, Galium odoratum. Differential species of the colline-submontane high altitude form towards the montane form F134: Carpinus betulus; Hedera helix, Carex digitata, Lathyrus vernus, Stellaria holostea, Veronica chamaedrys
Ecological variants
The community is edaphically quite uniform.
Geographical variants (geogr. differential species)
Typical, western form in the Sudetian foothills and the Sorau-Trebnitz hills etc. (without any special floristic characteristics), in the north-easternmost part of its range (the Silesian highlands, Czenstochauer Jura, northwestern foothills of the Kreuzmountains etc.) there is a regional form characterised by Sarmatian species such as Cruciata glabra, Euonymus verrucosus and Isopyrum thalictroides.
Natural accompanying vegetation (most important units in complex with the name giving mapping unit, scientific names)
Mostly in a relief-dependent, rapid alternation with oak-hornbeam forests (Galio sylvatici-Carpinetum, F56) and/or lowland beech forests (Galio odorati-Fagetum, F107).
Adjoining climax and permanent vegetation (with numbers of mapping units)
pine forests (D54), soil-acidic mixed oak forests (F11, F12, F19, F20, F20t), pedunculate oak-hornbeam forests (F42a), sessile oak-hornbeam forests (F55, F56, 57), species-poor beech and mixed beech forests (F85, F96), species-rich beech and mixed beech forests (F107, F115, F134), oak and pine-oak forests (G1), alder-ash forests (U9, U24).
Land use, substitute communities
Primarily arable land; forest quite common, mostly on sites not suitable for cultivation .
forestry (substitute communities, plantations of economic tree-species, scrub)
pine forestry, low forest and Carpinion-like secondary substitute communities; forest clearing vegetation (Fragarion); Sambuco-Salicion scrub; fringe and forest clearing communities (Trifolion medii).
grassland (meadows, pastures, herb-rich communities)
Only local and small-sized meadows (Arrhenatheretum elatioris) and permanent pastures (Lolio-Cynosuretum).
arable land (characteristic weed communities)
Mostly wheat/beet fields; most important weed communities: Lamio-Veronicetum politae in root crop fields, Vicietum tetraspermae in cereal fields.
settlements (typical ruderal vegetation)
Settlements are rare; their ruderal vegetation has still not been studied adequately. Prunello-Plantaginetum as vegetation on trampled ground.
Site conditions of the mapping unit
Landscape type, geomorphology
Shallow concave slopes in the mountains and hills; also deeply cut ravines
Altitudinal belt and/or altitudinal range
colline-submontane; (200) 300-500 m
Geology (bedrock)
Cretaceous, Jurassic; silicate and sedimentary rocks of different origin (Palaeozoic, Precambrian); in the marginal regions of distribution preferably lime-rich substrates
soil type, also the depth of fine textured earth (soil), stone content; (international nomenclature)
Eutrophic limestone brown soils; also mull humus carbonate soil and browned humus carbonate soil. The humus form is mostly typical mull; (eutric and calcic cambisols; rendzic leptosols)
soil texture
loamy sands to sandy loams
soil moisture, water balance
fresh
soil reaction
weakly acidic to neutral
Climate incl. local climate
climate type (following Walter & Lieth)
VI7c, VI8c, VI9b
average annual temperature
7,5-8,5 EC
average annual precipitation
620-700 mm
average temperature of the warmest month
17,2-18,5 EC
average temperature of the coldest month
-3,0 to -2,5 EC
local climate or other climatic peculiarities
Local climatic relatively moist and cool sites: north slopes, hollows, gorges.
Importance for nature protection
Present state and development trend of natural vegetation (degree of endangerment)
Only a few well preserved stands; greatly endangered.
endangered communities, species worthy of protection in natural vegetation
No details
causes of endangerment
Environmental pollution and increasing deforestation.
required measures for protection and restitution
Protection of semi-natural remnants.
Localities of representative stands (loci typici) with state of protection
of the natural vegetation
Poland: only a few regions, e. g. Zobten (Poln. ðl“ïa) and Annaberg in Silesia as well as "Zloty Potok" and "Bukowa Gora" near Czenstochau, are protected by law.
of characteristic substitute communities worthy of protection
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Most important references (author, year)
Matuszkiewicz & Matuszkiewicz 1973
Compiled by
W. Matuszkiewicz
