In total, 22 heath communities have been identified.
The heath communities consist of six separate subgroups:
five lowland dry heath communities, all with distinct, largely non-overlapping distributions in
England and
Wales (
H1,
H2,
H6,
H8 and
H9)
three localised communities, with non-overlapping ranges in southern England, which are considered transitional between the above and the wetter communities classified in the NVC as mires (
H3,
H4 and
H5)
two maritime heath communities, found exclusively on the coasts of northern and western Britain; one (
H7) is more widespread than the other (
H11)
four submontane heaths from upland areas in northern and western Britain; two of these (
H10 and
H12) are widespread, whereas the other two (
H16 and
H21) are more localised (confined to
Scotland, and Scotland and the
Lake District, respectively)
two sub-alpine communities, considered transitional between the previous and next groupings -
H18, which is widespread in northern and western Britain), and
H22, which is confined to Scotland
six
montane heath communities with
lichens and
mosses, all of which are confined either to Scotland (
H13,
H14,
H15,
H17 and
H20) or to Scotland and the Lake District (
H19)
List of heath communities
The following is a list of the communities that make up this category: