Temperate and boreal hardwood riparian woodland

These are mixed broadleaved woodlands typical of less-frequently flooded, well-aerated mineral soils in floodplains and around flushes on valley sides cut into shales and clay rocks or clayey superficial deposits throughout the nemoral and boreal zones with some extension into the sub-mediterranean.  The flooding regime can be by inundation of river water and/or by rising ground water in river valleys. They are especially characteristic of the middle and lower reaches of major European rivers such as the Rhine, Danube, Emst, Elbe, Saale, Weser, Loire-Allier and Rhone-Saône but also occur throughout Europe as smaller stands in younger river valleys. Occasional deposition of flood-borne silt or the concentration of nutrients and bases in flushes keep the soils fertile and, with the free drainage, there is a typically brisk turnover with mull humus. The high productivity of the soils has meant that these woodlands have been highly valued as sources of timber and the structure and composition have been much modified by exploitation.

The canopy in high-forest stands can be very tall and multi-layered and is typically dominated by various mixtures of Fraxinus excelsior, F. angustifoliae, Alnus glutinosa with A. incana towards the upper reaches of rivers outside the Atlantic zone, Populus alba, P. tremula, P. nigra, P. canescens, Acer pseudoplatanus, Quercus robur, Prunus avium, Ulmus glabra, U. minor and U. laevis. There is typically an abundant and varied understorey, again often structurally complex, with a range of small trees, shrubs and lianes that are more typical of mesic deciduous woodlands (such as G1.Aa Carpinus and Quercus woodland) than the wet woodlands of floodplains, swamps and fens. Among these species, Crataegus monogyna, Malus sylvestris, Eunomyus europaeus, Prunus padus, Clematis vitalba, Humulus lupulus, Tamus communis and Vitis vinifera are distinctive. Stands on spring-fed slopes with incompetent substrates often suffer landslips on the surface of which the trees and shrubs keel over at crazy angles.

 The field layer also has much in common with that of mesic deciduous woodland though some of the typical vernal dominants there, such as Hyacinthoides non-scripta, are excluded by the wetness of the ground, so it is geophytes like Anemone nemorosa, A. ranunculoides, Ranunculus ficaria, Ornithogalum umbellatum or sometimes Fritillaria meleagris which provide the springtime colour here. Becoming prominent later in the year is a contingent of plants of moist to wet, fresh fertile soils including some tall fen herbs such as Angelica sylvestris, Lysimachia vulgaris, Lythrum salicaria, Lycopus europaeus, Rumex sanguineus, Allium scorodoprasum and Filipendula ulmaria together with a diversity of bulky plants, for example Carex remota, C. pendula, C. strigosa, C. laevigata, Juncus effusus, Equisetum telmateia, whose local abundance can lend different stands a strikingly distinctive appearance. Ground-carpeting plants such as Aegopodium podagraria, Ranunculus repens and Poa trivialis and particular assemblages of herbs along the fringes of trickling water can add further character and complexity. Bryophytes are often extensive and luxuriant, providing a continuing green ground cover as the herbaceous plants die back in autumn.

Indicators of quality:

Less modified stands are reckoned to preserve some of the richest of the original European forests of larger floodplains but the diverse structures related to sylvicultural exploitation need not necessarily reduce or impair the overall floristic quality of the habitat.

Indicators of good quality are:

• Signs of natural regeneration with an uneven-aged structure
• Structural complexity, including old trees and the retention of fallen, dying and dead timber with a diversity of available niches for associated flora, fauna and fungi
• Sufficient proportion of historically old (ancient) woodland with high species diversity
• Intact natural hydrology: maintenance of the periodical to occasional flooding or flushing characteristic of the habitat
• Survival of larger stands of forest without fragmentation and isolation
• Absence of non-native tree species and of invasive aliens in all layers such as Impatiens glandulifera

Synthesis of Red List assessment

Confidence in the assessment

Pressures and threats