Hercynian Vaccinium heaths

Description (English)

Montane or submontane Calluna-Vaccinium heaths of the Hercynian ranges of northern and middle Western and Central Europe and of their surrounding regions. They mostly include secondary heaths of the beech level of the Vosges, of the Black Forest, of the Ardennes and the Eifel, of the mid-German Hercynian ranges, of the Bohemian Quadrangle, including the Erzgebirge (Metallic Mountains), the Sudeten, the Bohemian Forest (Sumava) and the Czecho-Moravian Hills, of the Massif Central and, locally, the Morvan, with Calluna vulgaris, Vaccinium myrtillus, Vaccinium vitis-idaea, Vaccinium uliginosum and montane lycopodes (Diphasiastrum spp.). They also comprise partly primary and sometimes threatened local formations of extrasylvatic areas, in particular the Calluna vulgaris heaths enclaved in alpine and subalpine Pinus mugo scrub and acidophilous grassland complexes of the high slopes and plateaux of the Giant Mountains (Sudeten), or the Calluna vulgaris, Vaccinium myrtillus, Vaccinium vitis-idaea heaths of the Brocken summit in the Harz with Anemone micrantha and Hieracium alpinum.

Source: EUNIS habitat classification