Tall herb corridor

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High perennial corridor with water cane and loosestrife , important foraging habitat for butterflies , northwest Germany.

Tall herbaceous and storage corridors are areas made up of tall, perennial herbaceous plants . They are scattered in most landscapes, but mostly only in small areas.

Origin, location conditions

Tall herbaceous vegetation grows on soils that are rich in nutrients, especially nitrogen, and are usually rich in bases. This can be naturally nutrient-rich soils, but they are mostly found on areas that have been enriched with nutrients through fertilization. Natural tall herbaceous vegetation can only be found in very small areas and almost exclusively in the mountains, at the tree line, in avalanche tracks or along stream banks. Most of them, almost all of them in the lowlands, were created under the influence of humans. Typically, tall herbaceous meadows are fallow stages that occur after agricultural land use has ceased. As a rule, the wet tall herbaceous vegetation emerged from former wet meadows. But they can also arise without prior use, if nutrient-rich soils are open to natural succession without regular pruning or tillage . This can e.g. B. be the banks of water, forest or roadsides. However, extensive tall herbaceous corridors arise mainly on rubble, on industrial wasteland, along railway tracks and at similar locations. From the Latin "rudus": rubble, one speaks here of ruderal high herbaceous meadows . Very often tall herbaceous corridors also emerge after forests have been cleared (or storm thrown). The vegetation that then emerges is also called flotation ground . On the banks of the river bank perennials can naturally appear as a narrow band in a strip between the bank reed and the alluvial forest . Many of their species climb up the trees, which is why one speaks of veil societies .

Many tall herbaceous vegetation are short-lived transitional stages that occur temporarily during the succession from low or open vegetation to forest. Some, e.g. B. Many meadowsweet corridors, but can be quite permanent, because the competitive tall perennials can suppress the establishment of woody seedlings for a long time. If there are no interventions or disturbances at all, they too are subject to reforestation, sometimes only after decades. Unaffected rudderal tall herbaceous corridors and loft corridors are usually subject to rapid succession to the forest . There are permanent stands where (possibly irregular or rare) disturbances permanently prevent the development of woody plants.

If areas of nutrient-rich soils are mowed permanently, but with a low cutting frequency, stands are created in which meadow plants, especially upper grasses , mix with perennials that are moderately pruning. Such stands are called ruderal meadows or fallow meadows. They usually arise when the mowing is not carried out for agricultural reasons, e.g. B. in riparian strips of water, in very extensive green areas or in some nature conservation measures. Ruderal meadows are transitional stands between meadows and tall herbaceous areas.

Tall herbaceous corridors on damp locations

Tall herbaceous meadow with
pointed bulrush and swamp zest , northwest Germany

Meadowsweet corridors

Herbaceous corridors dominated by the real meadowsweet are found widespread on moist, nutrient-rich soils with a mean groundwater level at a depth of around 80 centimeters. Often they grow flat due to the task of use ( fallow land ) on fertilized and unfertilized wet meadows (marsh marigold meadows, marsh grass meadows). From the planar to the subalpine level of Central Europe, the plant communities that can be assigned to the association of meadowsweet high herbaceous meadows (Filipendulion) are widespread. The flowers rich vegetation is typically selected from the meadowsweet ( Filipendula ulmaria ), agrimony ( Eupatorium cannabinum ), skipjack valerian ( Valeriana officinalis ), Stachys palustris ( Stachys palustris ), purple loosestrife ( Lythrum salicaria ), Gilbweiderich ( Lysimachia vulgaris ), stinging nettle ( Urtica dioica ), marsh horsetail ( Equisetum palustre ), reed grass ( Phalaris arundinacea ), cabbage thistle ( Cirsium oleraceum ).

Ruderale tall herbaceous corridors

High perennial corridors on fresh to dry soils correspond structurally to those of wet soils, but are made up of different species. Typically, they are also poorer in species than meadows or low-growing fallow stages in the same locations and are usually formed from dominant stands of one species. In the plant sociological system, corresponding plant communities are assigned to the class Artemisietea .

Nettle and nettle-ground grass corridors

Herbaceous corridors dominated by great nettle are very common today and probably the most widespread tall herbaceous corridors. They are usually found on fresh to moist soils, preferably in the partial shade of woody plants (in the "border"), and always on very nitrogen-rich soils. Nettle corridors are usually poor in plant species. Common companions are ground elder ( Aegopodium podagraria ), calf goiter species ( Chaerophyllum sp.) And other umbellifers. Further species are water dost ( Eupatorium cannabinum ) and the climbing species bryonia ( Bryonia dioica ) and burdock bedstraw ( Galium aparine ). The woody plants often involved, black elder ( Sambucus nigra ) and Sal willow ( Salix caprea ), show the transition to ruderal forest bushes (from the Sambuco-Salicion capreae association), into which nettle meadows often merge.

Neophyte-rich tall herbaceous vegetation

In cities, along railway lines or on industrial sites, tall herbaceous areas are widespread in which species ( neophytes ) introduced and naturalized from other continents predominate. Stocks are often around from the Goldenrod species Solidago gigantea ( Solidago gigantea ) and Canada goldenrod ( Solidago canadensis ) or from the knotweed Richen Japanese knotweed ( Fallopia japonica ) and giant knotweed ( Fallopia sachalinensis ) or Indian balsam ( Impatiens glandulifera ) . Corresponding stocks can also be found outside the cities, along river banks, and sometimes on fallow fields or fields. A further neophyte, the giant hogweed ( Heracleum mantegazzianum ) can take their place, especially on banks .

Alpine tall herbaceous vegetation

Alpen-Ampfer- Lagerflur (Rumicetum alpini), Dachstein, Austria

In the alpine level up to the tree line there are alpine sorrel societies (Rumicetum alpini), so-called storage areas. They are secondary, nitrogen-rich tall herbaceous vegetation that arise as a result of grazing. The cattle, which are scattered during the day, are rounded up in the camp in the evening and give off faeces and urine, which means that small areas are heavily fertilized. Warehouse corridors are formed from plant species that are spurned by grazing cattle. The flowering aspect is mainly characterized by: blue monkshood ( Aconitum napellus ), gray alpine easter ( Adenostyles alliariae ), alpine dock ( Rumex alpinus ) and the like. a.

Alpine storage corridors on mountain ridges or hillside terraces also owe their occurrence to ibex, chamois or red deer , which prefer to rest in such places and usually deposit their excrement near their camp.

Hazard and protection

According to the Habitats Directive (92/43 / EEC), the aim of which is to create a cohesive network of biotopes, moist tall herbaceous areas are particularly protected habitat types (NATURA 2000 code: 6430).

literature

  • P. Mertz: Plant communities of Central Europe and the Alps. Recognize, determine, evaluate. Ecomed Verlagsgesellschaft, Landsberg / Lech, 2000. ISBN 3-609-19380-8
  • L. Jedicke & E. Jedicke: Color atlas landscapes and biotopes of Germany. Ulmer, Stuttgart, 1992. ISBN 3-8001-3320-2

Single receipts

  1. Fred Kurt: The deer in the cultural landscape Ecology, social behavior, hunting and protection . Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-440-09397-2 , p. 45
  2. NATURA 2000 code: 6430. Moist perennial edges of the planar to alpine height level including forest edges. in the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation: Directory of the habitat types occurring in Germany from the European nature reserve system NATURA 2000 (query: March 20, 2018)