This list of the natural communities of New Hampshire contains links to pages with photographs of each community type (hold your cursor over the photo for its caption). This will be a work in progress, with over 100 links posted in 2007 and the rest planned for 2008. The organization is the same as in the 2004 Natural Communities of New Hampshire technical manual, where more detailed descriptions of each community may be found.

Open Uplands
Alpine and subalpine communities
Alpine herbaceous snowbank and other wet-mesic alpine communities
• Alpine herbaceous snowbank/rill
• Moist alpine herb - heath meadow
• Alpine ravine shrub thicket

Diapensia shrublands
• Diapensia shrubland

Dwarf shrub - sedge - rush meadows
• Alpine heath snowbank
• Bigelow’s sedge meadow
• Sedge - rush - heath meadow
• Dwarf shrub - bilberry - rush barren

Krummholz and heath - krummholz
• Black spruce - balsam fir krummholz
• Labrador tea heath - krummholz
• Sheep laurel - labrador tea heath - krummholz

Alpine/subalpine bogs and subalpine heath snowbanks
• Wet alpine/subalpine bog
• Wooded subalpine bog/heath snowbank
• Subalpine sliding fen

Sparsely vegetated alpine and subalpine communities
• Felsenmeer
• Subalpine rocky bald
• Alpine cliff

Landslides and talus barrens
• Montane landslide
• Montane lichen talus barren
• Temperate lichen talus barren

Cliffs
• Montane acidic cliff
• Montane circumneutral cliff
• Lowland acidic cliff
• Lowland circumneutral cliff

Coastal dunes and inland beach strands
Open coastal dune communities
• Beach grass grassland
• Bayberry - beach plum maritime shrubland

Inland beach strands
• Hudsonia inland beach strand

Wooded Uplands
Spruce - fir zone
Spruce - fir forests
• High-elevation spruce - fir forest
• High-elevation balsam fir forest
• Montane black spruce - red spruce forest
• Lowland spruce - fir forest

Wooded talus slopes
• Spruce - birch - mountain maple wooded talus
• Subalpine cold-air talus barren

Wooded rocky ridges and outcrops
• Red spruce - heath - cinquefoil rocky ridge
• Montane heath woodland
• Jack pine rocky ridge woodland
• Red pine rocky ridge
• Circumneutral rocky ridge

Northern and transition hardwood - conifer zone
Acidic, primarily nutrient-poor forests
• Northern hardwood - spruce - fir forest
• Sugar maple - beech - yellow birch forest
• Hemlock - spruce - northern hardwood forest
• Hemlock forest
• Beech forest
• Hemlock - white pine forest
• Hemlock - beech - northern hardwood forest
• Hemlock - beech - oak - pine forest
• Northern white cedar forest/woodland

Enriched forests
• Semi-rich mesic sugar maple forest
• Rich mesic forest

Oak - pine zone
Dry forests and woodlands
Forests and woodlands on glacial till, terraces, dunes, or sand plains
• Dry red oak - white pine forest
• Dry Appalachian oak - hickory forest
• Pitch pine - Appalachian oak - heath forest
• Maritime wooded dune
• Pitch pine - scrub oak woodland
• Red pine - white pine - balsam fir forest
• Mixed pine - red oak woodland
Forests and woodlands on rocky ridges, talus, or coastal headlands
• Red oak - pine rocky ridge
• Appalachian oak - pine rocky ridge
• Chestnut oak forest/woodland
• Coastal rocky headland

Mesic and dry-mesic nutrient-poor forests and woodlands
• Mesic Appalachian oak - hickory forest
• Appalachian oak - mountain laurel forest
• Red oak - hickory wooded talus
• Red oak - black birch wooded talus

Enriched forests and woodlands
Forests on glacial till or river terraces
• Rich sugar maple - oak - hickory terrace forest
• Semi-rich Appalachian oak - sugar maple forest
Forests and woodlands on rocky ridges, colluvial slopes, or talus
• Rich Appalachian oak rocky woods
• Rich red oak rocky woods
• Red oak - ironwood - Pennsylvania sedge woodland

Wooded Wetlands and Floodplain Forests
Floodplain forests
Floodplain forests of major rivers
• Silver maple - wood nettle - ostrich fern floodplain forest
• Silver maple - false nettle - sensitive fern floodplain forest
• Sugar maple - ironwood - short husk floodplain forest
• Sugar maple - silver maple - white ash floodplain forest

Floodplain forests of minor rivers
• Swamp white oak floodplain forest
• Basswood - white ash - black maple floodplain forest
• Sycamore floodplain forest
• Red maple floodplain forest
• Balsam fir floodplain/silt plain

Boggy nutrient-poor swamps
Red maple and coastal conifer swamps primarily of central or southern NH
• Atlantic white cedar - yellow birch - pepperbush swamp
• Inland Atlantic white cedar swamp
• Atlantic white cedar - leather-leaf swamp
• Atlantic white cedar - giant rhododendron swamp
• Red maple - Sphagnum basin swamp
• Black gum - red maple basin swamp
• Swamp white oak basin swamp
• Pitch pine - heath swamp

Conifer swamps primarily of central or northern NH
• Black spruce - larch swamp

Minerotrophic swamps
Red maple and coastal conifer swamps of central and southern NH
• Red maple - black ash - swamp saxifrage swamp
• Red maple - lake sedge swamp
• Red maple - sensitive fern swamp
• Circumneutral seepage swamp
• Seasonally flooded Atlantic white cedar swamp
• Seasonally flooded red maple swamp

Northern conifer and hardwood swamps of central and northern NH
• Northern hardwood - black ash - conifer swamp
• Northern white cedar - balsam fir swamp
• Acidic northern white cedar swamp
• Northern white cedar seepage forest
• Northern white cedar - hemlock swamp
• Red spruce swamp
• Seasonally flooded boreal swamp
• Northern hardwood seepage forest

Other forests with a seasonally high water table
• Hemlock - cinnamon fern forest
• Red maple - elm - ladyfern silt forest
• Red maple - red oak - cinnamon fern forest

Forest seeps
• Acidic Sphagnum forest seep
• Subacid forest seep
• Circumneutral hardwood forest seep

Vernal pools
• Vernal woodland pool
• Vernal floodplain pool

Open Wetlands and Riparian Communities
Open river channels, riverbanks, and floodplains
River channels and low riverbanks
• Riverweed river rapid
• Hudsonia - silverling river channel
• Dwarf cherry river channel
• Boulder - cobble river channel
• Cobble - sand river channel
• Herbaceous sandy river channel
• Willow low riverbank
• Twisted sedge low riverbank
• Herbaceous low riverbank

Medium to high riverbanks and floodplains
Herbaceous and mixed herbaceous - woody
• Herbaceous riverbank/floodplain
• Herbaceous - wooded riverbank/floodplain
• Blue-joint - goldenrod - virgin’s bower riverbank/floodplain
• Riverbank/floodplain fern glade
Shrub
• Alder alluvial shrubland
• Alder - dogwood - arrowwood alluvial thicket
• Meadowsweet alluvial thicket
• Alluvial mixed shrub thicket

Riverbank outcrops, riverside seeps, and river bluffs
• Acidic riverbank outcrop
• Circumneutral riverbank outcrop
• Acidic riverside seep
• Calcareous riverside seep
• Dry river bluff

Open emergent marshes, shrub thickets, and aquatic beds
Open-basins and streamsides
Shallow emergent marshes
• Tall graminoid emergent marsh
• Mixed tall graminoid - scrub-shrub marsh
• Northern medium sedge meadow marsh
• Short graminoid - forb emergent marsh/mud flat
• Oxbow marsh
Medium-depth and deep emergent marshes
• Medium-depth emergent marsh
• Cattail marsh
• Deep emergent marsh - aquatic bed
Aquatic beds
• Aquatic bed
Open seepage marshes
• Herbaceous seepage marsh
Shrub thickets (non-peatland types)
• Highbush blueberry - winterberry shrub thicket
• Oxbow buttonbush swamp
• Buttonbush basin swamp

Sandy pond shore, closed-basin, and sand dune settings
Sandy pond shore settings
• Sweet gale - speckled alder shrub thicket
• Twig-rush sandy turf pond shore
• Bulblet umbrella-sedge open sandy pond shore
• Water lobelia aquatic sandy pond shore
Sand plain closed-basin marsh settings
• Meadowsweet - robust graminoid sand plain marsh
• Meadow beauty sand plain marsh
• Three-way sedge - manna-grass mud flat marsh
• Spike-rush - floating-leaved aquatic mud flat
• Sharp-flowered manna-grass shallow peat marsh
• Montane sandy basin marsh
Coastal sand dune settings
• Coastal interdunal marsh/swale

Cliff seeps
• Cliff seep

Open peatlands
Mud-bottoms, open moss lawns, and flarks
• Liverwort - horned bladderwort mud-bottom
• Sphagnum rubellum - small cranberry moss carpet
• Large cranberry - short sedge moss lawn
• Water willow - Sphagnum lagg
• Circumneutral - calcareous flark
Dwarf- and medium-shrub bogs and poor fens
• Leather-leaf - sheep laurel dwarf shrub bog
• Leather-leaf - black spruce bog
• Northern white cedar circumneutral string
Sedge and shrub/graminoid fens
• Bog rosemary - sweet gale - sedge fen
• Sweet gale - meadowsweet - tussock sedge fen
• Montane sloping fen
• Hairy-fruited sedge - sweet gale fen
• Speckled alder - lake sedge intermediate fen
• Calcareous sedge - moss fen
Tall – medium shrub thicket/sparse woodlands
• Highbush blueberry - mountain holly wooded fen
• Montane alder - heath shrub thicket
• Winterberry - cinnamon fern wooded fen
• Sweet pepperbush wooded fen
• Speckled alder wooded fen
• Highbush blueberry - sweet gale - meadowsweet shrub thicket
Marshy peatland-margin communities
• Floating marshy peat mat
• Marshy moat

Estuarine Communities
Intertidal marshes, flats, and shores
• Low salt marsh
• High salt marsh
• Brackish marsh
• Salt pannes and pools
• Low brackish tidal riverbank marsh
• High brackish tidal riverbank marsh
• Coastal salt pond marsh
• Coastal shoreline strand/swale
• Intertidal rocky shore
• Saline/brackish intertidal flat

Subtidal communities
• Saline/brackish subtidal channel/bay bottom
• Tidal creek bottom
• Eelgrass bed
• Oyster bed

ADDENDA & ERRATA

ADDENDA

The following list of communities are additions since the 2004 printing of Natural Communities of New Hampshire:
• Brackish water pool
• Fenny marsh
• Hudsonia maritime shrubland

• Maritime intertidal rocky shore
• Maritime cobble beach
• Maritime meadow
• Maritime rocky barren
• Maritime shrub thicket
• Riverwash plain and dunes

• Pitch pine rocky ridge

ERRATA
These two aquatic communities are holdovers from before the 2004 classification, and do not currently have a crosswalked counterpart in the 2004 classification:
• Acidic brownwater lake/pond
• NE alpine/subalpine pond

For opportunities to experience some of these natural communities in person,
browse the guides and profiles on our Visiting NH's Biodiversity program page.