Common (Translated Scientific) Name: Beach Pine - Western Red-cedar / Sweetgale / Peatmoss species Treed Fen

Colloquial Name: No Data Available

Hierarchy Level:  Association

Type Concept: This association occurs in low-elevation poor fens and bogs on the western Olympic Peninsula and in outer coastal British Columbia. Soils are a mixture of fibrous, heath, woody and sphagnum peat, and are wet year-round at or slightly below the surface. Seasonal winter flooding is probably also an important process. The evergreen conifer tree canopy is open and stunted, usually not over 10 m tall. Pinus contorta var. contorta and Thuja plicata are typically codominant, with Tsuga heterophylla usually present and occasionally codominant. The shrub layer is dominated or codominated by broad-leaved deciduous Myrica gale, and sometimes codominated by evergreen Gaultheria shallon or Ledum groenlandicum. The herbaceous layer is typically dominated or codominated by Lysichiton americanus (>10% cover). The well-developed moss layer is typically dominated by Sphagnum spp., which always exceeds 10% cover. This association is distinguished by codominance of Thuja plicata, Pinus contorta, Myrica gale, and Sphagnum spp.

Diagnostic Characteristics: No Data Available

Rationale for Nominal Species or Physiognomic Features: No Data Available

Classification Comments: This association is described from Washington. After reading the description, a wetland ecologist from British Columbia wrote that the type is common in the hypermaritime of British Columbia as part of the "blanket mire." No further details or discussion have been possible to date. For now, they will be considered the same, but there is a possibility that the British Columbia type is different.

Similar NVC Types: No Data Available

note: No Data Available