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Life Friuli Fens - Conservation and restoration of calcareous fens in Friuli

Life Friuli Fens ©

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introduction

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Cladium fen

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alkaline fen

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wet meadow

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dry meadow

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waters

LIFE FRIULI FENS

dry meadow

 

In some zones of resurgences area, the Molinia wet meadows fade to dry meadows where there are species more adapted to withstand summer periods of water shortages.
These meadows are now extremely limited in the resurgences area, because the land that host them were the first to be ploughed up during the land reclamation. So remain few examples represented by river terraces included by survived wet meadows. The soils are of two types: clayey grounds or grounds composed by materials more draining as pebble gravel and sand covered by organic matter layers.
In the first case the soils are neutral or slightly acid with a discreet nutrients content and are still present different hygrophilous species (typical species of wet meadows as Scorzonera humilis or Plantago altissima), with a good presence of acidophilous species as Calluna vulgaris and Genista germanica that report the acidification of soils and the evolution towards a heathland which combine elements most characteristic of lean grasslands as Bromus erectus, Koeleria pyramidata, Galium verum, Euphorbia verrucosa, Filipendula vulgaris, Dorycnium germanicum, Allium carinatum.
In the second case the soils are similar to those of high plains, rich of calcium, very draining and able to resist to prolonged drought because they do not suffer the water table effect. Here prevail species typical of calcicoles arid meadows which form a vegetal association similar to Onobrichido arenariae-Brometum erecti, common in Friuli from lowlands to low mountains, on average fertile soils corresponding to a primary vegetation represented by oak groves.
In resurgences area the environment connotation is given by a group of grasses as Chrysopogon gryllus, Bromopsis erecta, Brachypodium rupestre, Koeleria pyramidata and legumes as Trifolium montanum, Onobrychis arenaria, Ononis spinosa, Anthyllis vulneraria, Dorycnium herbaceum, typically accompanied by Cirsium pannonicum, Filipendula vulgaris, Galium verum, Knautia illyrica, Prunella laciniata, P. grandiflora, Allium carinatum and several orchidaceae, among which the most represented are Gymnadenia conopsea, Orchis morio, Orchis tridentata, Anacamptis pyramidalis, Platanthera bifolia, Serapias vomeracea.
A feature distinctive and original of this type of vegetation is represented by the presence - more or less regular - of a group of hygrophilous species as Crepis froelichiana dinarica, Carex distans, Carex hostiana, Laserpitum prutenicum, Serratula tinctoria, Genista tinctoria, and Tetragonolobus maritimus and sometimes Molinia caerulea.

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