Segetal communities of cereal crops of the Mazowiecki Landscape Park

The characteristics of communities developing in cereal crops of the Mazowiecki Landscape Park are presented in the paper. The traditional methods of cultivation, a mosaic of fields, meadows and forests as well as a specific microclimate affect the occurrence of species-rich, syntaxonomically differentiated agrophytocenoses. The occurrence of 4 associations and 2 communities in the area of the Park was noted. On the poorest soils, the association <i>Arnoserido-Scleranthetum</i> was the most widespread and internally differentiated, whereas in more fertile habitats the association <i>Vicietum tetraspermae</i> was the commonest. The above mentioned associations were noted more frequently in winter crops than in spring cereals. Plots of the association <i>Papaveretum argemones</i> and intermediate communities, between <i>Arnoserido- Scleranthetum</i> and <i>Papaveretum argemones</i>, were seldom observed in the studied area. Plots with domination of species diagnostic for the order <i>Polygono-Chenopodietalia</i> occurred rarely in spring cereals, mainly in the protection zone of the Landscape Park. Single, impoverished plots of <i>Aphano-Matricarietum</i> were recorded in the south-eastern part of the Park.