Screes

Common name:
Screes
Habitat code:
H2
Description:

Accumulations of boulders, stones, rock fragments, pebbles, gravels or finer material, of non-aeolian depositional origin, unvegetated, occupied by lichens or mosses, or colonized by sparse herbs or shrubs. Included are screes and scree slopes produced by slope processes, moraines and drumlins originating from glacial deposition, sandar, eskers and kames resulting from fluvio-glacial deposition, block slopes, block streams and block fields constructed by periglacial depositional processes of downslope mass movement, ancient beach deposits constituted by former coastal constructional processes. Deposits originating from aeolian depositional processes (dunes) or from eruptive volcanic activity are not included; they are included in H5 and H6 respectively. High mountain, boreal and mediterranean unstable screes are colonized by highly specialised plant communities. They or their constituting species may also inhabit moraines and other depositional debris accumulations in the same areas. A very few communities form in lowland areas elsewhere.

Important species scientific name Corresponding species comments
Dryopteris fragrans (L.) Schott Annex II species - habitat relation; source Unit of Vegetation Science, Lancaster, 2000
Braya linearis Rouy Annex II species - habitat relation; source Unit of Vegetation Science, Lancaster, 2000
Arenaria ciliata ssp. ciliata L. Annex II species - habitat relation; source Unit of Vegetation Science, Lancaster, 2000
Arenaria humifusa Wahlenb. Annex II species - habitat relation; source Unit of Vegetation Science, Lancaster, 2000
Next sub-divisions
EUNIS Code Type Name Name
H2.5 Acid siliceous screes of warm exposures Acid siliceous screes of warm exposures
H2.1 Cold siliceous screes Cold siliceous screes
H2.2 Cold limestone screes Cold limestone screes
H2.3 Temperate-montane acid siliceous screes Temperate-montane acid siliceous screes
H2.4 Temperate-montane calcareous and ultra-basic screes Temperate-montane calcareous and ultra-basic screes
H2.6 Calcareous and ultra-basic screes of warm exposures Calcareous and ultra-basic screes of warm exposures