Poor fens and soft-water spring mires

Peatlands, flushes and vegetated springs with moderately acid ground water, within valley mires or on hillsides. As in the rich fens, the water level is at or near the surface of the substratum and peat formation depends on a permanently high watertable. Poor-fen vegetation is typically dominated by small sedges ([Carex canescens], [Carex echinata], [Carex nigra], [Eriophorum angustifolium], [Trichophorum cespitosum]), with pleurocarpous mosses ([Calliergonella cuspidata], [Calliergon] spp., [Drepanocladus fluitans]) or sphagna (Sphagnum cuspidatum], [Sphagnum subsecundum agg].). Other characteristic vascular plants are [Agrostis canina], [Cardamine pratensis], [Juncus filiformis], [Ranunculus flammula] and [Viola palustris]. Soft-water spring mires (D2.2C) are often dominated by [Montia fontana] or bryophytes ([Bryum] spp., [Philonotis] spp., [Pohlia] spp.). Excluded are the water body of soft-water springs (C2.1), and incompletely terrestrialized fringing vegetation (C3.2) or vegetation rafts (D2.3).