Environmental Description:  This community occurs in shallow basins with sometimes porous substrate, where the water level drops significantly during dry years. Substrate is variously peat, muck or sandy soil. In West Virginia, this herbaceous fen occurs on temporarily flooded, semipermanently flooded, or saturated peat in the Allegheny Mountains and Ridge and Valley regions at elevations between 620 and 1150 m. It is a small-patch type that occupies flat-lying land in headwater basins. Many stands occur in beaver-influenced wetlands, either on the margins of active beaver ponds, or on sites that are slowly drying above abandoned beaver dams. The type also occurs on the margins of alluvial wetland mosaics, where seepage is impounded behind natural stream levees. Snags are present and indicate that some sites were formerly forested wetlands, while others are temporarily invaded by woody species during dry years and periods of reduced beaver activity. Hummock-and-hollow microtopography is moderately well-developed, with hummocks ranging from 10-20 cm in height. Bedrock is typically acidic sandstone and, less commonly, shale. The substrate is poorly to very poorly drained peat, varying in depth from 25 cm to more than 120 cm, generally underlain by deposits of sand, silt, or clay loam. Hydric soil indicators include histisol, histic epipedon, black histic, hydrogen sulphide, and depleted matrix. Mean soil pH is 4.2 (n=4), mean pore water pH is 4.6 (n=6), and electrical conductivity averages 35 micromhos/cm (n=6). Soil chemistry is characterized by high Fe; moderate Al, B, Cu, Mg, Na, exchangeable nitrogen, and total exchange capacity; and low Ca, K, Mn, S (n=4). Organic matter, phosphorus and zinc are variable, ranging from 3%-68%, 11-102 ppm, and 1-95 ppm respectively. The unvegetated surface is predominantly litter, with an average of 14% standing water and 1% downed wood (Byers et al. 2007).