A fen is a sere, a phase in the natural ecological succession from the open water of a lake to (for example) woodland. It is thus, a type of wetland. In ecology, a sere is one stage in a sequence of events by which the vegetation of an area develops and becomes more complex, usually referred to by the name of its dominant species, which may be the largest or the most common. ... Secondary succession: trees are colonizing uncultivated fields and meadows Ecological succession, a fundamental concept in ecology, is the process by which a natural community moves from a simpler level of organisation to a more complex community. ... A Lake is a body of water surrounded by land. ... Limber Pine woodland, Toiyabe Range, central Nevada Biologically, a woodland is differentiated from a forest. ... A subtropical wetland in Florida, USA, with an endangered American Crocodile. ...

The characteristics of a fen

The ecological succession begins with fresh water filling a depression in the land surface. However, the subsequent course of development depends on the conditions; the acidity of the water, the climate and so on. In a north European climate, given a near-neutral or somewhat basic pH, submerged plants will colonize the lake while from its margin, emergent vegetation, typically a reed bed will spread. World map showing Europe (geographically) When considered a continent, Europe is the worlds second-smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 km² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ... The title of this article is shown beginning with a capital letter due to technical restrictions. ... Binomial name Phragmites australis (Cav. ...

The decayed vegetation, with clay particles and precipitated carbonates (lime) will form ooze, held in place by the still water among the rhizomes and stems of the reeds. That in turn, will exclude air so that decomposition organisms will not fully work on the dead vegetation which subsequently sinks into it. In this way, peat will form. As the peat accumulates to near the surface level of the lake, a fen will develop on it. Provided it continues to be fed by chemically basic spring or runoff water, it will continue to grow out of the lake as long as oxygen is excluded from the peat. Decomposition is the reduction of bodies and other formerly living organisms into simpler forms of matter; and most particularly to the fate of the body, after death. ... Clay is a generic term for an aggregate of hydrous silicate particles less than 4 μm (micrometres) in diameter. ... Carbonate is an anion with a charge of -2 and an empirical formula of CO32-. For an aqueous solution, carbonate exists in three forms. ... Ginger rhizome In botany, a rhizome is a usually-underground, horizontal stem of a plant that often sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. ... Air is a name for the mixture of gases present in the Earths atmosphere. ... This article is in need of attention, please see the talk page. ... Peat in Lewis, Scotland Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetable matter. ...

If achievement of the saturation by water comes to be by way of direct rainfall, the fen will become acidic to the point where it is a bog. It can then grow on, above the level of the fen, receiving its moisture from the sky. Thus, a fen develops readily, in a moderately rainy climate. Where there is too little rain, seasonal dryness will allow air into the peat. This will permit its decay. Alternatively, too much rain washes the hydroxide (HO-) ions out of the peat and it becomes bog owing to the carbonic acid from dissolved carbon dioxide in the rain, added to the humic acid naturally in the peat. An acid (often represented by the generic formula AH) is typically a water-soluble, sour-tasting chemical compound. ... Look up Bog on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Virgin boreal acid bogs at Browns Lake Bog, Ohio. ...

Linguistic issues

Derivation

The word fen is derived from Old English (fenn) and considered to have proto-Germanic origins, since it has cognates in Gothic (fani), Old Frisian (fenne), Dutch (veen) and German (Fenne). Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ... The Gothic language (*gutiska razda, *𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌹𐍃𐌺𐌰 𐍂𐌰𐌶𐌳𐌰) is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths and specifically by the Visigoths. ... Old Frisian was the West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries by the people who, from their ancient homes in North Germany and Denmark, had settled in the area between the Rhine and Elbe on the European North Sea coast in the 4th and 5th centuries. ...

Latin and place names

In northern Europe, many of the natural fenlands were in countries which have been densely populated for centuries. Nearly all the fens in England and the Netherlands for example, had been drained before the people who really knew the wetlands were among those who wrote about them. There is consequently much confusion in the use of the nomenclature. This is particularly true as much of the written evidence from that time is in Latin, a language developed in southern Europe where the ecology was different; the tidal marsh and the bog are less evident in a tideless sea and a climate with rainless summers. The careful distinctions between habitats which will have been made by peasants who needed to know the various products obtainable from them were un-noticed by scholars and lawyers who wrote about them. In such countries, we are therefore, left with place names as the main linguistic source of information about the distribution of the pre-drainage habitats. Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the UK Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area - Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population - Total (mid-2004) - Density Ranked 1st UK 50. ... Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... The tide is the regular rising and falling of the oceans surface caused by changes in gravitational forces external to the Earth. ... Habitat (from the Latin for it inhabits) is the place where a particular species lives and grows. ...

Fen flora

The fen is a phase in the development of the natural succession from open lake, through reedbed, fen and carr, to woodland as the peat develops and its surface rises. Carr is the northern European equivalent of the swamp of the south-eastern United States. It is fen overgrown with generally small, trees of species such as sallow (Salix spp.) or alder (Alnus spp.). A list of species found in a fen therefore covers a range from those remaining from the earlier stage in the successional development to the pioneers of the succeeding one. Secondary succession: trees are colonizing uncultivated fields and meadows Ecological succession, a fundamental concept in ecology, is the process by which a natural community moves from a simpler level of organisation to a more complex community. ... A Lake is a body of water surrounded by land. ... A reedbed in summer Reedbeds are basically ’temporary’ habitats. ... Limber Pine woodland, Toiyabe Range, central Nevada Biologically, a woodland is differentiated from a forest. ... A freshwater swamp This article is about the wetland type (a landform). ... The word sallow has these meanings:- A sort of willow tree. ...

Fen also merges into freshwater marsh where it develops more in the direction of grassland. This is most likely to occur where the tree species of carr are systematically removed by man for the development of pasture. This process can be hastened by partial drainage. Pastureland Pasture is land with lush herbaceous vegetation cover used for grazing of ungulates as part of a farm or ranch. ...

Particularly where the fen is fed by runoff from surrounding land, it is common for there to be strips of fen fed by the base-rich waters lying between 'islands' of bog which are fed by rainfall. Thus, there is plenty of opportunity for merging or juxtaposition of the floras typical of the different habitats.

List of fen flora species

The following is a list of plant species to be found in a north European fen with some attempt to distinguish between reed bed relicts and the carr pioneers. However, nature does not come in neat compartments so that for example, the odd stalk of common reed will be found in carr.

In pools

• Bottle sedge; Carex rostrata
• Whorl grass; Catabrosa aquatica
• Needle spike rush; Elrocharis acicularis
• Northern spike rush; Elrocharis austriaca
• The sweet grasses; Glyceria spp.
• Reed; Phragmites australis
• Swamp meadow grass; Poa palustris

Species About 500 species, including: Poa abbreviata - Short Bluegrass Poa alpigena - Northern Meadow-grass Poa alpina - Alpine Meadow-grass Poa alsodes - Grove Bluegrass Poa angustifolia - Narrow-leaved Meadow-grass Poa annua - Annual Meadow-grass Poa arachnifera - Texas Bluegrass Poa arctica - Arctic Meadow-grass Poa badensis Poa bulbosa - Bulbous Meadow-grass...

In typical fen

• Flat sedge; Blysmus compressus
• Great fen sedge; Cladium mariscus
• Davall's sedge; Carex davalliana
• Dioecious sedge; Carex dioica
• Brown sedbe; Carex disticha
• Slender sedge; Carex lasiocarpa
• Flea sedge; Carex pulicaris
• Common spike rush; Eleocharis palustris
• Few-flowered spike rush; Eleocharis quinqueflora
• Slender spike rush; Eleocharis uniglumis
• Broad-leaved cotton sedge; Eriophorum latifolium
• Brown bog [sic] rush; Schoenus ferrugineus

Cotton grass is a plant; the name is used for any member of the genus Eriophorum belonging to the family Cyperaceae, the Sedge family. ...

In fen carr

• Narrow small reed; Calamagrostis stricta
• Purple small reed; Calamagrostis canescens
• Cyperus sedge; Carex pseudocyperus
• Wood club rush; Scirpus sylvaticus

This redirect page has been listed on Wikipedia:Redirects for deletion. ...

References

Rose, F. Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of the British Isles and north-western Europe (1989) ISBN 0-670-80688-9