Peat-moss acidic poor yet minerotrophic fens of the boreal and temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere
Sphagno-Caricion canescentis Passarge (1964) 1978 nom. conserv. propos.
Sphagno-Caricion canescentis Passarge (1964) 1978 nom. conserv. propos.
sch25 | Alternatively, this unit would fit very well within the ecological unit called 'poor fens' (Hájek et al. 2006). In many recent vegetation surveys however, poor and moderately rich fens are merged into a single alliance Caricion fuscae Koch 1926. In some other surveys, poor fens strongly dominated by calcifuge Sphagnum species are classified either in the Sphagno-Caricion canescentis Passarge (1964) 1978 (Valachovič 2001; Chytrý 2011) or in the Caricion canescentis-fuscae Nordhagen 1937 (Dengler et al. 2004: sub: 'Caricion canescentis-nigrae Nordhagen ex Tx. 1937 corr. Timmermann in Dengler et al. 2004'). However, the name 'Caricion canescentis-fuscae (Koch 1928) Nordhagen 1937' published by Tüxen (1937) is an illegitimate correction (ICPN art. 30) of the Caricion canescentis-goodenowii Nordhagen 1937 because Tüxen (1937) referred to Nordhagen (1937) using an unambiguous bibliographical reference. Nordhagen´s name was published validly as it included the validly described associations Caricetum fuscae Dutoit 1924 and Caricetum fuscae Braun-Blanquet 1915, both undoubtedly representing moderately rich fens and not Sphagnum-dominated poor fens. The name Caricion canescentis-goodenowii hence cannot be used for poor fens delimited from moderately rich fens. The alliance comprising only poor fens and not moderately rich fens hence should carry a different name. We propose to conserve the name Sphagno-Caricion canescentis Passarge (1964) 1978 against the Sphagnion recurvi Succow 1974 that had not been in use in any recent national vegetation survey. In addition, the name 'Sphagnion recurvi Succow 1974' should to be corrected since Sphagnum recurvum s.str. does not occur in Eurasia (except for the Azores). (M. Hájek). K. Dierssen suggests that this syntaxon should be considered synonymous with the Caricion fuscae Koch 1926.