The Heleochloëtum alopecuroidis association in the Pannonian Basin — fiction or reality?

Abstract

The understanding of some plant communities can often be ambiguous if studies from multiple countries are considered, because goals and methods in each country may differ. The presented work is based on a detailed review of historic and recent literature about the association Heleochloetum alopecuroidis in the Pannonian Basin and tangentially the adjacent regions within Central and SE Europe compared to authors’ field data. The named community was generally reported in moderately saline and marshy habitats in lowland areas, nevertheless it is not documented by phytosociological releves to be part of the halophytic alliance of Cypero-Spergularion salinae. We performed a critical assessment of stands with the species Heleochloa alopecuroides in halophytic vegetation where we added our own data from field research between 2003 and 2013 (1044 phytosociological releves) and 354 unpublished and published releves taken from the three National Phytosociological Databases (Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia).We conclude that association Heleochloetum alopecuroidis cannot be properly described as being part of the Pannonian halophytic vegetation group. It should be therefore deleted from the vegetation surveys.