British National Vegetation Classification facts for kids

The British National Vegetation Classification or NVC is a way to sort and understand the different types of vegetation (plants) found in Great Britain. It helps scientists and others classify natural areas based on the plants growing there.

A big group of ecologists (scientists who study how living things interact with their environment) and botanists (plant experts) in the United Kingdom worked together for 15 years. Their hard work led to five important books called British Plant Communities, edited by John S. Rodwell. These books describe in detail the plants found in twelve main types of natural areas across Great Britain (but not Northern Ireland). They were the first complete guide to the country's plant types.

Based on all the information gathered in these books, special computer programs like MATCH, TABLEFIT, and MAVIS were created. These programs help people quickly figure out which NVC habitat type a certain area of plants belongs to.

Understanding NVC Terms

Here are some important words used with the British National Vegetation Classification and what they mean:

Plant Groups: Communities, Subcommunities, and Variants

• A community is the basic group for classifying plants. Think of it as a main type of plant area.
• A subcommunity is a smaller, more specific group within a community. It's like a special version of the main plant type.
• A variant is an even tinier division of a subcommunity. It's a very specific kind of plant group.

Constant Species

• A constant species in a community is a plant that you will always find in any area that belongs to that specific community. It's a plant that is always there.

You can find a list of these constant species and the NVC communities they belong to at List of constant species in the British National Vegetation Classification.

Rare Species

• A rare species is a plant that is connected to a certain community but is not common across the whole country.

Scientists decided if a plant was rare by looking at old plant maps and lists. For example, if a plant was found in less than 100 special grid squares on a map, it was considered rare.

For a list of these rare species and the NVC communities they are found in, see List of rare species in the British National Vegetation Classification.

NVC Communities by Type

There are 286 different plant communities in the British National Vegetation Classification. They are organized into these main groups:

• Woodland and scrub communities (25 types, starting with "W" – like forests and bushy areas)
• Mires (38 types, starting with "M" – these are wet, boggy areas)
• Heaths (22 types, starting with "H" – open areas with low-growing shrubs like heather)
• Mesotrophic grasslands (13 types, starting with "MG" – grasslands with a medium amount of nutrients)
• Calcicolous grasslands (14 types, starting with "CG" – grasslands that grow on chalk or limestone soils)
• Calcifugous grasslands and montane communities (21 types, starting with "U" – grasslands and mountain plants that don't like limey soils)
• Aquatic communities (24 types, starting with "A" – plants that live in water)
• Swamps and tall-herb fens (28 types, starting with "S" – very wet areas with tall grasses and herbs)
• Salt-marsh communities (28 types, starting with "SM" – plants that grow in salty coastal areas)
• Shingle, strandline and sand-dune communities (19 types, starting with "SD" – plants found on beaches, shingle, and sand dunes)
• Maritime cliff communities (12 types, starting with "MC" – plants that grow on sea cliffs)
• Vegetation of open habitats (42 types, starting with "OV" – plants found in various open areas)

You can find a complete list of all these communities at List of plant communities in the British National Vegetation Classification.