Carex montana
Ecology
This perennial herb was thought to be confined to rough, open grassland on limestone. However, recent studies have shown that it grows at these sites only where non-calcareous drift overlays the calcareous bedrock, and it can in fact thrive in neutral to acidic grassland, on heathland and in woodland rides, often in partial shade. Generally lowland, but reaching 560 m at Carreg yr Ogof (Carms.).
Status
Trends
The recognition of the wider ecological amplitude of C. montana has led to its discovery in many additional 10-km squares since the 1962 Atlas.
World Distribution
European Temperate element, with a continental distribution in W. Europe; also in C. and E. Asia.
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Broad Habitats
Light (Ellenberg): 7
Moisture (Ellenberg): 6
Reaction (Ellenberg): 4
Nitrogen (Ellenberg): 1
Salt Tolerance (Ellenberg): 0
January Mean Temperature (Celsius): 4
July Mean Temperature (Celsius): 15.5
Annual Precipitation (mm): 1193
Height (cm): 35
Perennation - primary
Life Form - primary
Woodiness
Clonality - primary
Count of 10km squares in Great Britain: 48
Count of 10km squares in Ireland: 0
Count of 10km squares in the Channel Isles: 0
Atlas Change Index: 0.68
JNCC Designations
Scarce Atlas Account
Carex montana L.
Soft-leaved sedge
Status: scarce
A plant of neutral to acidic grasslands, and in light shade in woodlands. The underlying rock is often Carboniferous limestone, or basic rocks such as serpentine (at the Lizard Peninsula), but usually the solid rock is covered with a layer of non-calcareous ‘drift’ (probably of aeolian origin; this is the case in its Mendip and Wye Valley sites). In the New Forest it is relatively common in heathland and woodpasture. It has recently been found in quantity in Erica vagans heath on the Lizard Peninsula. Although mainly a lowland species, it is found at 560 metres on Carreg yr Ogof.
C. montana is a perennial species. It appears incapable of re-rooting after disturbance, and regeneration is only by seed which, except in heavily shaded sites, is set abundantly.
It is very local, but often extremely abundant where it occurs. Its sites are less susceptible to trampling than those of C. humilis which sometimes grows nearby on calcareous soils, but at Symonds Yat one site of C. montana has been severely damaged by abseiling from the edge of a cliff. The original British station in Sussex was destroyed by building in 1969-71.
In Europe C. montana is not found further north than England, southern Sweden and central Russia, or further south than northern Spain, Corsica, northern Italy, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. It also occurs in the Caucasus, Urals and east Siberia.
Detailed accounts of its British distribution were provided by David (1977, 1982a) but since then the species has been discovered in Cornwall and many new sites have been found in Hampshire.
R. W. David
Atlas text references
Atlas (362c)
.
1986. Atlas of north European vascular plants north of the Tropic of Cancer. 3 vols.
.
1982. Sedges of the British Isles. Botanical Society of the British Isles Handbook no. 1, edn 2.
.
1994. Population genetics and demographic ecology of some scarce and declining vascular plants of Welsh lowland grassland and related habitats. Science Report No. 93.
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1965. Vergleichende Chorologie der zentraleuropäischen Flora. Volume 1. 2 vols.
.
1994. Scarce plants in Britain.