Trittrasen are types of low growing, more or less lawn-like vegetation, developing on surfaces that are heavily trampled or driven on. Since there seems to be no English word for this type of vegetation and the explanation of what it is is way to long for agreeable usage in texts, the German term is adopted.
The term is usually only employed for those vegetation types that are so strongly influenced by the trampling and driving on that they have a species combination that fundamentally differs from other ones. These communities either belong to the Polygono-Poetea annuae or the Lolio-Plantaginion within the Molinio-Arrhenatheretea.
However, there a quite a few communities that are indirectly furthered by trampling and driving on that are not affected so massively as the ones mentioned above. For instance, the dwarf rush community Cyperetum flavescentis (Nanocyperion) grows allmost entirely on footpaths, while the Eleusinetum indicae (Eragrostion) prefers trampled sites but also settles in flower beds and arable land.
Related Entries
- Caricetum stenophyllae
- Eleusinetum indicae