British NVC community CG7

NVC community CG7 (Festuca ovina - Hieracium pilosella - Thymus praecox/pulegioides grassland) is one of the calcicolous grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of three short-sward communities associated with heavy grazing, within the lowland calcicolous grassland group, and is regarded as the eastern counterpart of "typical" chalk grassland (community CG2).

It is a comparatively widely distributed community. There are five subcommunities.

Community composition
The following constant species are found in this community:
 * Sheep's Fescue (Festuca ovina)
 * Mouse-ear Hawkweed (Hieracium pilosella)
 * Rough Hawkbit (Leontodon hispidus)
 * Wild Thyme (Thymus praecox) / Large Thyme (T. pulegioides)
 * Cypress-leaved Plait-moss (Hypnum cupressiforme)

The following rare species are also associated with the community:
 * Field Wormwood (Artemisia campestris)
 * Purple Milk-vetch (Astragalus danicus)
 * Rare Spring-sedge (Carex ericetorum)
 * Wall Bedstraw (Galium parisiense)
 * Lizard Orchid (Himantoglossum hircinum)
 * Hutchinsia (Hornungia petraea)
 * Bur Medick (Medicago minima)
 * Sickle Medick (Medicago falcata)
 * Sand Lucerne (Medicago sativa ssp. varia)
 * Fine-leaved Sandwort (Minuartia hybrida)
 * Purple-stem Cat's-tail (Phleum phleoides)
 * Spring Cinquefoil (Potentilla neumanniana)
 * Sand Catchfly (Silene conica)
 * Spanish Catchfly (Silene otites)
 * Breckland Thyme (Thymus serpyllum)
 * Spiked Speedwell (Veronica spicata)
 * Spring Speedwell (Veronica verna)
 * Side-fruited Crisp-moss Pleurochaeta squarrosa
 * the lichen Bacidia muscorum
 * the lichen Buellia epigaea
 * the lichen Diploschistes scrupsos var. bryophilus
 * the lichen Fulgensia fulgens
 * the lichen Lecidea decipiens
 * the lichen Squamaria lentigera
 * the lichen Toximia caerulea var. nigricans
 * the lichen Toximia lobulata

Distribution
This community is found scattered throughout chalk grassland sites in southern England, particularly in The Brecks on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, with outlying clusters in the Yorkshire Wolds (also on chalk), and on Carboniferous limestone in Derbyshire and Mendip Hills.

Subcommunities
There are five subcommunities:
 * the Koeleria macrantha subcommunity
 * the Cladonia spp. subcommunity
 * the Ditrichum flexicaule - Diploschistes scruposus var. bryophilus subcommunity
 * the Fragaria vesca - Erigeron acer subcommunity
 * the Medicago lupulina - Rumex acetosa subcommunity