Inland saline habitats such as those present at Sandbach Flashes are extremely rare in Britain and support unusual communities of plants and animals. Due to the differing age, depth, and water chemistry, the flashes show considerable variation in their plant and animal communities. The most recently formed have narrow disjunct stands of
emergent vegetation dominated by
great reedmace Typha latifolia and occasionally by
lesser pond-sedge Carex acutiformis, whilst the oldest have extensive stands of
common reed Phragmites australis. At Fodens Flash the emergent vegetation grades into
fen and
wet woodland dominated by
alder Alnus glutinosa and
willow Salix spp. Wood small-reed
Calamagrostis epigejos is locally dominant in the ground flora here. In some areas
periodic flooding occurs and species such as
water-pepper Persicaria hydropiper,
plicate sweet-grass Glyceria plicata and
celery-leaved water-crowfoot Ranunculus sceleratus occur.
Shore-weed Littorella uniflora, a rare plant in Cheshire, is also present. The more saline flashes are fed by natural brine
springs and contain a range of species tolerant of
brackish water, for example,
spiked water-milfoil Myriophyllum spicatum,
fennel-leaved pondweed Potamogeton pectinatus and
horned pondweed Zannichellia palustris and the
green alga Enteromorpha intestinalis. Adjacent to these saline flashes are areas of
saltmarsh vegetation containing species such as
sea aster Aster tripolium,
lesser sea-spurrey Spergularia marina and
reflexed saltmarsh-grass Puccinellia distans. A number of uncommon
aquatic invertebrates occur including the
mayfly Caenis robusta and the
snail Gyraulus laevis, and species associated with brackish water habitats including the
water boatmen Sigara concinna and
S. stagnalis and the shrimps
Gammarus duebeni and
G. tigrinus. The flashes support significant numbers of
wildfowl and
waders as
migrants and winter visitors. The principal species are
wigeon,
teal,
lapwing and
snipe. The woodland at Fodens Flash has a rich
lichen flora. ==References==