This article gives an overview of the swamp

Swamp

A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

 and tall-herb fen

Fen

A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...

 communities in the British National Vegetation Classification

British National Vegetation Classification

The British National Vegetation Classification or NVC is a system of classifying natural habitat types in Great Britain according to the vegetation they contain....

 system.

Introduction

The swamp and tall-herb fen communities of the NVC were described in Volume 4 of British Plant Communities, first published in 1995, along with the aquatic communities

Aquatic communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system

This article gives an overview of the aquatic communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system.-Introduction:The aquatic communities of the NVC were described in Volume 4 of British Plant Communities, first published in 1995, along with the swamps and tall-herb fens.In total, 24...

.

In total, 28 swamp and tall-herb fen communities have been identified.

The swamp and tall-herb fen communities consist of three separate subgroups:

• twenty-one swamp communities, characterised by being species-poor, each dominated by an often tall or bulky monocotyledon
  Monocotyledon
  Monocotyledons, also known as monocots, are one of two major groups of flowering plants that are traditionally recognized, the other being dicotyledons, or dicots. Monocot seedlings typically have one cotyledon , in contrast to the two cotyledons typical of dicots...
  
   species, with little or nothing in the way of an understorey: S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, S8, S9, S10, S11, S12, S13, S14, S15, S16, S17, S18, S19, S20 and S29

• two communities termed "water-margin vegetation": S22 and S23

• five tall-herb fen communities, which have a more species-rich understorey than the swamps: S24, S25, S26, S27 and S28

List of swamp and tall-herb fen communities

The following is a list of the communities that make up this category:

• S1 Carex elata sedge-swamp Caricetum elatae Koch 1926
  British NVC community S1 (Carex elata sedge-swamp)
  NVC community S1 is one of the swamp communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system.It is a fairly localised community...
  
  

• S2 Cladium mariscus swamp and sedge-beds Cladietum marisci Zobrist 1933 emend. Pfeiffer 1961

• S3 Carex paniculata swamp Caricetum paniculatae Wangerin 1916

• S4 Phragmites australis swamp and reed-beds Phragmitetum australis (Gams 1927) Schmale 1939

• S5 Glyceria maxima swamp Glycerietum maximae (Nowinski 1928) Hueck 1931 emend. Krausch 1965

• S6 Carex riparia swamp Caricetum ripariae Soó 1928

• S7 Carex acutiformis swamp Caricetum acutiformis Sauer 1937

• S8 Scirpus lacustris ssp. lacustris swamp Scirpetum lacustris (Allorge 1922) Chouard 1924

• S9 Carex rostrata swamp Caricetum rostratae Rübel 1912

• S10 Equisetum fluviatile swamp Equisetetum fluviatile Steffen 1931 emend. Wilczek 1935

• S11 Carex vesicaria swamp Caricetum vesicariae Br.-Bl. & Denis 1926

• S12 Typha latifolia swamp Typhetum latifoliae Soó 1927

• S13 Typha angustifolia swamp Typhetum angustifoliae Soó 1927

• S14 Sparganium erectum swamp Sparganietum erecti Roll 1938

• S15 Acorus calamus swamp Acoretum calami Schulz 1941

• S16 Sagittaria sagittifolia swamp

• S17 Carex pseudocyperus swamp

• S18 Carex otrubae swamp Caricetum otrubae Mirza 1978

• S19 Eleocharis palustris swamp Eleocharitetum palustris Schennikow 1919

• S20 Scirpus lacustris ssp. tabernaemontani swamp Scirpetum tabernaemontani Passarge 1964

• S21 Scirpus maritimus swamp Scirpetum maritimi (Br.-Bl. 1931) R.Tx. 1937

• S22 Glyceria fluitans water-margin vegetation Glycerietum fluitantis Wilczek 1935

• S23 Other water-margin vegetation Glycerio-Sparganion Br.-Bl. & Sissingh apud Boer 1942 emend. Segal

• S24 Phragmites australis - Peucedanum palustre tall-herb fen Peucedano-Phragmitetum australis Wheeler 1978 emend.

• S25 Phragmites australis - Eupatorium cannabinum tall-herb fen

• S26 Phragmites australis - Urtica dioica tall-herb fen

• S27 Carex rostrata - Potentilla palustris tall-herb fen Potentillo-Caricetum rostratae Wheeler 1980a

• S28 Phalaris arundinacea tall-herb fen Phalaridetum arundinaceae Libbert 1931