British NVC community CG7
# British NVC community CG7

NVC community CG7 (Festuca ovina - Hieracium pilosella - Thymus praecox/pulegioides grassland) is one of the calcicolous grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of three short-sward communities associated with heavy grazing, within the lowland calcicolous grassland group, and is regarded as the eastern counterpart of "typical" chalk grassland (community CG2).

It is a comparatively widely distributed community. There are five subcommunities.

## Community composition

The following constant species are found in this community:

* Sheep's Fescue (Festuca ovina)
* Mouse-ear Hawkweed (Hieracium pilosella)
* Rough Hawkbit (Leontodon hispidus)
* Wild Thyme (Thymus praecox) / Large Thyme (T. pulegioides)
* Cypress-leaved Plait-moss (Hypnum cupressiforme)

The following rare species are also associated with the community:

* Field Wormwood (Artemisia campestris)
* Purple Milk-vetch (Astragalus danicus)
* Rare Spring-sedge (Carex ericetorum)
* Wall Bedstraw (Galium parisiense)
* Lizard Orchid (Himantoglossum hircinum)
* Hutchinsia (Hornungia petraea)
* Bur Medick (Medicago minima)
* Sickle Medick (Medicago falcata)
* Sand Lucerne (Medicago sativa ssp. varia)
* Fine-leaved Sandwort (Minuartia hybrida)
* Purple-stem Cat's-tail (Phleum phleoides)
* Spring Cinquefoil (Potentilla neumanniana)
* Sand Catchfly (Silene conica)
* Spanish Catchfly (Silene otites)
* Breckland Thyme (Thymus serpyllum)
* Spiked Speedwell (Veronica spicata)
* Spring Speedwell (Veronica verna)
* Side-fruited Crisp-moss Pleurochaeta squarrosa
* the lichen Bacidia muscorum
* the lichen Buellia epigaea
* the lichen Diploschistes scrupsos var. bryophilus
* the lichen Fulgensia fulgens
* the lichen Lecidea decipiens
* the lichen Squamaria lentigera
* the lichen Toximia caerulea var. nigricans
* the lichen Toximia lobulata

## Distribution

This community is found scattered throughout chalk grassland sites in southern England, particularly in The Brecks on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, with outlying clusters in the Yorkshire Wolds (also on chalk), and on Carboniferous limestone in Derbyshire and Mendip Hills.

## Subcommunities

There are five subcommunities:

* the Koeleria macrantha subcommunity
* the Cladonia spp. subcommunity
* the Ditrichum flexicaule - Diploschistes scruposus var. bryophilus subcommunity
* the Fragaria vesca - Erigeron acer subcommunity
* the Medicago lupulina - Rumex acetosa subcommunity
