''British Plant Communities'' is a five-volume work, edited by
John S. Rodwell and published by
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press
A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
, which describes the
plant communities
A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant co ...
which comprise the
British National Vegetation Classification
__NOTOC__
The British National Vegetation Classification or NVC is a system of classifying natural habitat types in Great Britain according to the vegetation they contain.
A large scientific meeting of ecologists, botanists, and other related pr ...
.
Its coverage includes all native vegetation communities and some artificial ones of
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
, excluding
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
. The series is a major contribution to plant conservation in Great Britain, and, as such, covers material appropriate for professionals and amateurs interested in the conservation of native plant communities. Each book begins with an introduction to the techniques used to survey the particular vegetations within its scope, discussing sampling, the type of data collected, organization of the data, and analysing the data. Each community is discussed with an overall emphasis of the ecology of the community, so that users can consider the relationships of various plant communities to each other as a function of climatic or soil conditions, for example.
The five volumes are:
* ''British Plant Communities Volume 1 – Woodlands and Scrub''
:This volume was first published in 1991 in hardback () and in 1998 in paperback ()
* ''British Plant Communities Volume 2 – Mires and Heaths''
:This volume was first published in 1991 in hardback () and in 1998 in paperback ()
* ''British Plant Communities Volume 3 – Grasslands and Montane Communities''
:This volume was first published in 1992 in hardback () and in 1998 in paperback ()
* ''British Plant Communities Volume 4 – Aquatic Communities, Swamps and Tall-herb Fens''
:This volume was first published in 1995 in hardback () and in 1998 in paperback ()
* ''British Plant Communities Volume 5 – Maritime Communities and Vegetation of Open Habitats''
:This volume was first published in 2000 in both hardback () and paperback ()
Errors
The following is a list of errors found in the published books:
* In Volume 1, on page 38–39, the branches leading from couplets 22 and 23 should read W12, not W14
* In volume 3, on page 117, the first branch in couplet 3 should lead to couplet 4, to enable the subcommunities of
CG3 to be discerned
* In volume 3, page 284, the ''Juncus trifidus – Racomitrium lanuginosum'' community is referred to as community
U11, whereas it is in fact community
U9.
* In volume 4, page 19, the "free-floating or rooted and submerged pondweed vegetation" group of aquatic communities is listed as having seven constituent communities, when in fact it has eight.
* In volume 5, page 20, the "middle saltmarsh" grouping is listed as having eight constituent communities, when in fact it has nine.
* In volume 5, pages 142–143, there is a discrepancy between the stated distribution of community
SD3 ("confined to Scotland") and the mapped distribution, which shows the community also occurring in Lancashire and Cumbria.
* In volume 5, page 482, ''Sedum anglicum'' is listed as a constituent species of community
OV33; however, it is not present in the floristic table for this community on page 437
External links
Cambridge University Press
{{NVC
01
.
Ecology of the British Isles
Florae (publication)
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Botany books
British non-fiction books
Books about the United Kingdom