Blanket bogs (* if active bog)

Description (English)

Extensive bog communities or landscapes on flat or sloping ground with poor surface drainage, in oceanic climates with heavy rainfall, characteristic of western and northern Britain and Ireland. In spite of some lateral water flow, blanket bogs are mostly ombrotrophic. They often cover extensive areas with local topographic features supporting distinct communities Erico-Sphagnetalia magellanici: Pleurozio purpureae-Ericetum tetralicis, Vaccinio-Ericetum tetralicis p.; Scheuchzerietalia palustris p., Utricularietalia intermedio-minoris p., Caricetalia fuscae p. Sphagna play an important role in all of them but the cyperaceous component is greater than in raised bogs. Only active bogs are considered to have priority status. The term "active" must be taken to mean still supporting a significant area of vegetation that is normally peat forming.
Subtypes in the British Isles:
Pal. 52.1 - Hyper-Atlantic blanket bogs of the western coastlands of Ireland, western Scotland and its islands, Cumbria, Northern Wales; bogs locally dominated by sphagna (Sphagnum auriculatum, Sphagnum magellanicum, Sphagnum compactum, Sphagnum papillosum, Sphagnum nemoreum, Sphagnum rubellum, Sphagnum tenellum, Sphagnum subnitens), or, particularly in parts of western Ireland, mucilaginous algal deposits (Zygogonium).
Pal. 52.2 - Blanket bogs of high ground, hills and mountains in Scotland, Ireland, Western England and Wales.