Observations on North-West European Limestone Grassland Communities: Phytosociological and Ecological Notes on Chalk Grasslands of Southern England

Abstract

During the summer of 1970, calcareous grasslands were studied at several localities in the southern part of the British Isles, as part of a survey of this type of vegetation in North-West Europe (Willems 1973, Willems & Blanckenborg 1975).

Plant nomenclature follows Heukels & van Ooststroom (1970) or, for taxa not mentioned by these, Clapham et al. (1968) for phanerogams and Margadant (1959) and van der Wijk et al. (1969) for bryophytes.

Contribution to the Symposium on Plant species and Plant communities, held at Nijmegen, 11–12 November 1976, on the occasion of the 60^th birthday of Professor Victor Westhoff.

The author would like to express his appreciation and gratitude to Messrs. F. van der Meulen and J. Wiegers, in 1970 students in Biology at the Utrecht University, for their great and pleasant assistance during the fieldwork. He is also much indebted to Drs. J. Wiegers of the Hugo de Vries Laboratorium, University of Amsterdam, and T.C.E. Wells of the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Huntingdon, U.K., for the useful discussions and critical comment on the manuscript.