Non-forest ecosystems

 

Numerous types of non-forest phytocenoses have been reported on the basis of geo-botanic diagnosis. The majority of them are subjected to protection under Natura 2000 program. Among the inventories phytocenoses, the most popular refer to:

Meadows and pastures

They cover the area of 64.3 ha in the Park, which constitutes over 40% of the total area covered by non-forest eco-systems. Mowing treatments conducted on every year basis allow for preserving their high environmental values. Meadows and pastures include the following groups:

• Molinia meadows – poor meadows of variable moisture content, mostly once-mown meadows with a low yielding value. Characteristic species in that group of meadows include: the purple moor grass, the soft rush, the common rush, the tufted hair grass, the marsh pennywort, and the velvet bent.
• kingcup meadows – meadows with a good culture, drained however damp, often mown meadows , with a domination of: the Yorkshire fog, the red fescue and the sorrel
• rye grass meadows – young meadows of resourceful mineral habitats, floristically rich, often mown meadows, with a domination of: the tall oatgrass, the orchard grass, the common yarrow, and the field daisy
• floor phytocenoses – with species resistant to browsing (the white clover, the annual bluegrass)
• non-fragile phytocenoses – demonstrating a ruderal character with a domination of the perennial ryegrass, the annual bluegrass, the broadleaf plantain and the plantago lanceolata.

Acid pastures and heathlands

On the area of the Park there are only two patches of acid pastures in Chociński Młyn. They include acidophilic, poor in species, low grass with the matgrass the occurrence of which is related to an intense grazing sheep and cattle in conditions of no organic fertilization.

Dry heathlands commonly occur on very poor and acid spodic soils with a pH value ranging from 4.0 to 5.0, sandy soils with a low level of ground waters. Usually, they have a form of low, colorful shrub phytocenoses, with a diversified vascular flora as well as a rich flora of cryptogams and lichens, which creates very good living conditions for vertebrates (beetles, diptera, hymenoptera, heteroptera and butterflies). The heathlands of the Park cover the area of over 36 ha and they occur mainly on deforested areas (former anti-fire strips, shoulders of forest roads, beneath power lines).

Sandy grasslands

Phytocenoses of sandy grasslands cover the area of about 10 ha and they play an important landscape role. They constitute pine forest secondary phytocenoses on areas without a forest cover (former anti-fighting strips, wide forest roads). Usually, they have a form of low, loose and rather colorful grassland phytocenoses, with a distinct hassock structure and a diversified vascular flora (the grey hair-grass, the Morison'S spurry, the teesdalea nudicaulis, the mouse-ear hawkweed, the sheepbit, the dwarf everlasting, the maiden pink, and the sea thrift).

Raised bogs

On the area of the Park, six patches of this type of habitats have been in reported with a total area of 2.5 ha. Raised bogs appear on highly acid soils (pH 3.5-4.5), poorly distributed and poor in mineral compounds peat, generated mainly from peat mosses. Precipitation constitutes a main source of water supply. Raised bogs consist of two basis structural components (hassocks and little valleys), occurring with various proportions and with different species composition. Hassocks refer most often to 10-50 cm elevations with the area ranging from several dozen cm2 to 1-4 m2 covered mainly with peat mosses of red or brown color and the tussock cotton-grass, the bog rosemary, the fenberry, the cross-leaved heath, the marsh labrador tea. Swamped valleys are usually dominated by common peat mosses of a green color as well as the bog sedge, the rhynchospora alba, and the English sundew.

Lowland and transient bogs

Lowland and transient bogs cover scarcely the area of 3.5 ha and they ara scattered within the whole area of the Park. They develop in places where as a result of peat accumulation processes a partial isolation of the peat-bog surface from surface and ground waters occurs (the process of transforming water reservoirs into land). The surface of water becomes covered by surface scum, floating carpets known as quagmires constructed from medium-high and low sedges, peat mosses and schimpers. Plants of those habitats are divided into two layers (mossy and herbal layers), whereas woody species due to high moist content appear there seldom and for a short period of time. The mossy layer consists of peat-bogs (peat-bog: the feathery bog-moss, the flat-topped bog-moss, the sphagnum angustifolium, the contorted sphagnum) and common mosses, the proportions of which may be diversified. Roots and rhizomes of vascular plants (sedges: the mud sedge, the woollyfruit sedge, the lesser pond sedge, the blue-leaf sedge, and the water arum, the marsh cinquefoil, the rhynchospora alba, and the cotton grass) bond the mossy layer creating quagmire.

Sedge and reed rushes

Both sedge and reed rushes are related to water and mud environment. Individual phytocenoses of the Phragmitetea class are distinguished on the basis of characteristic species domination. Sedge rushes called low rushes appear in the inshore zone of water reservoirs, and sedges (the caricetum rostratae, the carex gracilis, and the lesser pond sedge) are dominating species. On the other hand, reed rushes occupy habitats of stagnant waters or slowly flowing waters and they are referred to as high rushes. A characteristic species of this phytocenosis refers to a macrophyte: the common reed.

Nitrophilous phytocenoses of perennial plants of ruderal areas as well as natural and semi-natural shrubs in forest edge.

Those phytocenoses cover a small area in the Park and they are localized within a direct vicinity of forester’s lodges as well as other developments. They are dominated by perennial nitrophilous species (the common nettle, the common wormwood, the broad-leaved dock , and the Canadian thistle).

Segetal phytocenoses

They refer to monocyteledons and dicotyledons, more seldom to perennials associating outdoor cropping. Species of plants occurring in those phytocenoses depend on the type and season of agro-technical treatments (seeding, treatments, harvesting). Segetal phytocenoses may be observed in the Park in the locality of Bachorze, where an extensive farming is run on arable land.