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Biological Flora of the British Isles: Milium effusum
Forest & Nature Lab, Ghent University, Geraardsbergsesteenweg 267, BE-9090 Gontrode-Melle, Belgium;.
Southern Swedish Forest Research Centre, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 49, SE-230 53 Alnarp, Sweden.
EDYSAN (FRE 3498 CNRS-UPJV), Universite de Picardie Jules Verne, 1 rue des Louvels, FR-80037 Amiens Cedex, France.
Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway.
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2017 (English)In: Journal of Ecology, ISSN 0022-0477, E-ISSN 1365-2745, Vol. 105, no 3, p. 839-858Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

1. This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Milium effusum L. (Wood Millet)

that are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour. The main topics

are presented within the standard framework of the Biological Flora of the British Isles: distribution,

habitat, communities, responses to biotic factors, responses to environment, structure and physiology,

phenology, floral and seed characters, herbivores and disease, history, and conservation.

2. The grass Milium effusum is a common species of mature woodland in central and southern England,

but is less common in the wetter parts of northern England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Worldwide,

the species is native to many temperate, boreal, subarctic and subalpine parts of the northern

hemisphere: from eastern North America across most of Europe (excluding Mediterranean climates) to

the Ural Mountains and Black Sea, extending eastwards to the Himalaya, Korea and Japan.

3. Wood Millet is a shade-tolerant, relatively tall grass (up to 18 m) producing up to 700 caryopses

per individual. It is characteristic of temperate deciduous woodland, but can also occur in other

woodland and forest types and even in scrub, alpine meadows, along railways and roads, and on

rocks. In woods, it is one of the most conspicuous plants of the herb layer in the early summer after

the disappearance of spring flowering species. While the species is generally considered an ancient

woodland indicator in England and western Europe, it is also known to colonize secondary, postagricultural

forests relatively rapidly in other areas such as Denmark, southern Sweden and Poland.

4. The species has a wide amplitude in terms of soil acidity and nutrient availability, but predominantly

grows on soils of intermediate soil fertility and soil pH and with high organic matter concentration.

However, M. effusum can tolerate large quantities of tree-leaf litter on the forest floor and is

able to grow on very acidic soils.

5. Changes in land use, climate, densities of large herbivores and atmospheric deposition of nitrogen

are having effects on populations of Wood Millet. Significant responses of the life-history traits and

population characteristics have been detected in response to environmental variation and to experimental

treatments of temperature, nutrients, light and acidity. In many of its habitats across its range,

M. effusum is currently becoming more frequent. During the last century, its mean elevation of

occurrence in upland areas of Europe has also increased by several hundreds of metres. Typically,

management actions are directed towards the conservation of its main habitat type (e.g. ancient

woodlands of the Milio-Fagetum association) rather than to the species specifically.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Wiley-Blackwell, 2017. Vol. 105, no 3, p. 839-858
Keywords [en]
climatic limitation, communities, conservation, ecophysiology, geographical and altitudinal
National Category
Biological Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-135008DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.12744ISI: 000400594500025OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-135008DiVA, id: diva2:1078685
Note

Funding agencies: Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO); FWO; ERC [614839 - PASTFORWARD]

Available from: 2017-03-06 Created: 2017-03-06 Last updated: 2017-06-01

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