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de
K
lerk
:
Palynological research of the Vosges Mountains
17
The area between 1000 and 1200 m asl. west of
the crest includes mainly
Fagus
, with
Acer pseu-
doplatanus
and
Sorbus aucuparia.
Abies
does
not occur above 1100 m. The crest region itself
contains a vegetation of shrublike
Fagus
stands
(“Krummholz”) and extensive subalpine mead-
ows (“Hautes Chaumes”) that are dominated
by
Vaccinium myrtillus
,
V. vitis-idaea
,
Festuca
rubra
,
Nardus stricta
,
Agrostis vulgaris
,
Calluna
vulgaris
,
Potentilla erecta
and
Genista pilosa
.
These chaumes are considered primarily natural
vegetation types above the tree limit (that, thus,
is somewhat lower than in the Black Forest). Ac-
cording to
F
rey
(1964),
D
e
V
alk
(1981),
S
tadel
-
Figure 1. Location of the Vosges Mountains (NE France) and the Black Forest (SW Germany); N: northern cross-
section, S: southern cross-section (cf. Fig. 2).