Plant life-form schemes constitute a way of classifying plants alternatively to the ordinary species-genus-family

scientific classification Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

. In

colloquial speech Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom normally employed in conversa ...

, plants may be classified as

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from tree ...

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicina ...

s (

forb A forb or phorb is an herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid (grass, sedge, or rush). The term is used in biology and in vegetation ecology, especially in relation to grasslands and understory. Typically these are dicots without woo ...

s and

graminoid In botany and ecology, graminoid refers to a herbaceous plant with a grass-like morphology, i.e. elongated culms with long, blade-like leaves. They are contrasted to forbs, herbaceous plants without grass-like features. The plants most ofte ...

s), etc. The scientific use of life-form schemes emphasizes plant function in the

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

and that the same function or "adaptedness" to the environment may be achieved in a number of ways, i.e. plant species that are closely related

phylogenetically In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups ...

may have widely different life-form, for example '' Adoxa'' and ''

Sambucus ''Sambucus'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Adoxaceae. The various species are commonly called elder or elderberry. The genus was formerly placed in the honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae, but was reclassified as Adoxaceae due to ge ...

'' are from the same family, but the former is a small

herbaceous plant Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition ...

and the latter is a

. Conversely, unrelated species may share a life-form through

convergent evolution Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last com ...

. While taxonomic classification is concerned with the production of natural classifications (being natural understood either in philosophical basis for pre-evolutionary thinking, or

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics (; from Greek φυλή/ φῦλον [] "tribe, clan, race", and wikt:γενετικός, γενετικός [] "origin, source, birth") is the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among or within groups ...

ally as non-

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of conver ...

), plant life form classifications uses other criteria than naturalness, like morphology, physiology and ecology. ''Life-form'' and ''growth-form'' are essentially synonymous concepts, despite attempts to restrict the meaning of growth-form to types differing in shoot architecture.Du Rietz, G. E. (1931
Life-forms of terrestrial flowering plants
I. Acta Phytogeographica Suecica 3 (1): 95 pp. Most life form schemes are concerned with

vascular plant Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes () or collectively Tracheophyta (), form a large group of land plants ( accepted known species) that have lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They ...

s only. ''Plant construction types'' may be used in a broader sense to encompass ''planktophytes'', ''benthophytes'' (mainly

alga Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

e) and

terrestrial plant A terrestrial plant is a plant that grows on, in, or from land. Other types of plants are aquatic (living in water), epiphytic (living on trees) and lithophytic (living in or on rocks). The distinction between aquatic and terrestrial plants i ...

s. A popular life-form scheme is the Raunkiær system.

History

One of the earliest attempts to classify the life-forms of plants and animals was made by

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...

, whose writings are lost. His pupil,

Theophrastus Theophrastus (; grc-gre, Θεόφραστος ; c. 371c. 287 BC), a Greek philosopher and the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He was a native of Eresos in Lesbos.Gavin Hardy and Laurence Totelin, ''Ancient Botany'', Routle ...

, in ''Historia Plantarum'' (c. 350 BC), was the first who formally recognized plant

habits A habit (or wont as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

: trees, shrubs and herbs. Some earlier authors (e.g., Humboldt, 1806) did classify species according to physiognomy, but were explicit about the entities being merely practical classes without any relation to plant function. A marked exception was

A. P. de Candolle Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candolle ...

(1818) attempt to construct a natural system of botanical classification. His system was based on the height of the lignified stem and on plant longevity.

Eugenius Warming Eugenius (died 6 September 394) was a usurper in the Western Roman Empire (392–394) against Emperor Theodosius I. While Christian himself, Eugenius capitalized on the discontent in the West caused by Theodosius' religious policies targeting p ...

, in his account, is explicit about his Candollean legacy. Warming, E. (1909) Oecology of Plants - an introduction to the study of plant-communities, translated by P. Groom and I. B. Balfour. Clarendon Press, Oxford. 422 pp. Warming's first attempt in life-form classification was his work ''Om Skudbygning, Overvintring og Foryngelse'' (translated title "On shoot architecture, perennation and rejuvenation" - See line drawings) (1884). The classification was based on his meticulous observations while raising wild plants from seed in the

Copenhagen Botanical Garden The University of Copenhagen Botanical Garden ( da, Botanisk have), usually referred to simply as Copenhagen Botanical Garden, is a botanical garden located in the centre of Copenhagen, Denmark. It covers an area of 10 hectares and is particular ...

. Fourteen informal groups were recognized, based on longevity of the plant, power of

vegetative propagation Vegetative reproduction (also known as vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication or cloning) is any form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or spec ...

, duration of tillers,

hypogeous Hypogeal, hypogean, hypogeic and hypogeous (; ) are biological terms describing an organism's activity below the soil surface. In botany, a seed is described as showing hypogeal germination when the cotyledons of the germinating seed remain non ...

epigeous Epigeal, epigean, epigeic and epigeous are biological terms describing an organism's activity above the soil surface. In botany, a seed is described as showing epigeal germination when the cotyledons of the germinating seed expand, throw off the ...

type of shoots, mode of wintering, and degree and mode of branching of

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow ...

s. The term life-form was first coined by Warming ("livsform") in his 1895 book

Plantesamfund ''Plantesamfund - Grundtræk af den økologiske Plantegeografi'', published in Danish in 1895 by Eugen Warming, and in English in 1909 as ''Oecology of Plants: An Introduction to the Study of Plant Communities'', by Warming and Martin Vahl, was th ...

, Warming, E. (1895) Plantesamfund - Grundtræk af den økologiske Plantegeografi. P.G. Philipsens Forlag, Kjøbenhavn; Chapter 2 "Livsform (Vegetationsform)" p. 3-6. but was translated to "growthform" in the 1909 English version '' Oecology of Plants''. Warming developed his life-form scheme further in his "On the life forms in the vegetable kingdom". He presented a hierarchic scheme, first dividing plants into

heterotrophic A heterotroph (; ) is an organism that cannot produce its own food, instead taking nutrition from other sources of organic carbon, mainly plant or animal matter. In the food chain, heterotrophs are primary, secondary and tertiary consumers, but ...

and autotrophic, the latter group then into aquatic and

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on or near the ground, as opposed to ...

, the land plants into ''muscoid'', ''lichenoid'', ''lianoid'' and all other autonomous land plants, which again were divided into

monocarpic Monocarpic plants are those that flower and set seeds only once, and then die. The term is derived from Greek (''mono'', "single" + ''karpos'', "fruit" or "grain"), and was first used by Alphonse de Candolle. Other terms with the same meaning ar ...

and

polycarpic Polycarpic plants are those that flower and set seeds many times before dying. A term of identical meaning is pleonanthic and iteroparous. Polycarpic plants are able to reproduce multiple times due to at least some portion of its meristems being ...

. This system was incorporated into the English version of his 1895 book ''Oecology of Plants''. Warming continued working on plant life-forms and intended to develop his system further. However, due to high age and illness, he was able to publish a draft of his last system only Following Warming's line of emphasizing functional characters, Oscar Drude devised a life-form scheme in his ''Die Systematische und Geographische Anordnung der Phanerogamen'' (1887). This was, however, a hybrid between physiognomic and functional classification schemes as it recognized

monocots Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, ( Lilianae '' sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are grass and grass-like flowering plants (angiosperms), the seeds of which typically contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. They constitute one of ...

and dicots as groups.

Drude In German folklore, a drude (german: Drude, pl. ''Druden'') is a kind of malevolent nocturnal spirit (an elf ( Alp) or kobold or a hag) associated with nightmares, prevalent especially in Southern Germany. Druden were said to participate in th ...

later modified his scheme in ''Deutschlands Pflanzengeographie'' (1896), and this scheme was adopted by the influential American plant

ecologist Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

Frederic Clements Frederic Edward Clements (September 16, 1874 – July 26, 1945) was an American plant ecologist and pioneer in the study of plant ecology and vegetation succession. Biography Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, he studied botany at the University of Neb ...

and

Roscoe Pound Nathan Roscoe Pound (October 27, 1870 – June 30, 1964) was an American legal scholar and educator. He served as Dean of the University of Nebraska College of Law from 1903 to 1911 and Dean of Harvard Law School from 1916 to 1936. He was a memb ...

Christen C. Raunkiær's classification (1904) recognized life-forms (first called "biological types") on the basis of plant adaptation to survive the unfavorable season, be it cold or dry, that is the position of buds with respect to the soil surface. In subsequent works, he showed the correspondence between gross climate and the relative abundance of his life-forms. (1931) reviewed the previous life-form schemes in 1931 and strongly criticized the attempt to include "epharmonic" characters, i.e., those that can change in response to the environment (see

phenotypic plasticity Phenotypic plasticity refers to some of the changes in an organism's behavior, morphology and physiology in response to a unique environment. Fundamental to the way in which organisms cope with environmental variation, phenotypic plasticity encompa ...

). He tabulated six parallel ways of life-form classification: * 1. Main life-forms ("Grundformen"): based upon the general plant physiognomy (e.g., Theophrastus, 350 BC, Humboldt, 1806; * 2. Growth-forms ''sensu stricto'': based upon the shoot architecture; * 3. Periodicity life-forms: based upon the seasonal physiognomic variation; * 4. Bud height life-forms: based upon the height above (or below) the ground-level of the uppermost buds perduring the most unfavourable seasons (e.g., Raunkiær, 1904); * 5. Bud-type life-forms: based upon the structure of the buds perduring the most unfavourable seasons; * 6. Leaf life-forms: based on the character (form, size, duration, structure, etc.) of the leaves (e.g., Raunkiær, 1916). Later authors have combined these or other types of unidimensional life-form schemes into more complex schemes, in which life-forms are defined as combinations of states of several characters. Examples are the schemes proposed by

Pierre Dansereau Pierre Dansereau (October 5, 1911 – September 28, 2011) was a Canadian ecologist from Quebec known as one of the "fathers of ecology". Biography Born in Outremont, Quebec (now part of Montreal), he received a Bachelor of Science in Agricult ...

and Stephan Halloy. These schemes approach the concept of plant functional type, which has recently replaced ''life-form'' in a narrow sense.

Classification systems

Following, some relevant schemes.

Theophrastus (c. 350 BC)

Based on

plant habit Habit, equivalent to habitus in some applications in biology, refers variously to aspects of behaviour or structure, as follows: *In zoology (particularly in ethology), habit usually refers to aspects of more or less predictable ''behaviour'', i ...

:Du Rietz (1931), p. 1. *

Tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s *

Shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from tree ...

s *

Herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicina ...

Humboldt (1806-1808)

Humboldt described 19 (originally 16) ''Hauptformen'', named mostly after some characteristic genus or family: * ''die Palmen'' * ''die Bananenform'' * ''die Malvenform'' * ''die Form der Mimosen'' * ''die Heidekräuter'' * ''die Cactusform'' * ''die Orchideen'' * ''die Form der Casuarinen'' * ''die Nadelhölzer'' * ''die Pothosgewächse (Arumform)'' * ''die Lianen'' * ''die Aloegewächse'' * ''die Grasform'' * ''die Farenkräuter'' * ''die Liliengewächse'' * ''die Weidenform'' * ''die Myrtengewächse'' * ''die Melastomenform'' * ''die Lorbeerform''

De Candolle (1818)

Based upon the duration of life and the height of the ligneous stem: * 1. ''Planta monocarpica'' * 2. ''Planta monocarpica annua'' * 3. ''Planta monocarpica biennis'' * 4. ''Planta monocarpica perennis'' * 5. ''Planta rhizocarpica'' * 6. ''Planta caulocarpica'' * 7. ''Planta caulocarpica suffrutex'' * 8. ''Planta caulocarpica frutex'' * 9. ''Planta caulocarpica arbuscula'' * 10. ''Planta caulocarpica arbor''

Raunkiær (1904-1907) plant life-forms

Based on the place of the plant's growth-point (bud) during seasons with adverse conditions (cold seasons, dry seasons): * Phanerophytes * Chamaephytes * Hemicryptophytes * Cryptophyte :*

Geophyte A storage organ is a part of a plant specifically modified for storage of energy (generally in the form of carbohydrates) or water. Storage organs often grow underground, where they are better protected from attack by herbivores. Plants that have ...

s :*

Helophyte Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that g ...

s :*

Hydrophyte Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that g ...

s * Therophytes * Aerophytes *

Epiphyte An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

Warming (1909)

*I. Heterotrophic plants (holosaprophytes and holoparasites). *II. Aquatic plants. *Ill. Muscoid plants (bryophytes, and perhaps Hymenophyllaceae). *IV. Lichenoid plants (lichens, and perhaps some vascular plants like Tillandsia nsneoides). *V. Lianoid plants. *VI. The rest of the autonomous terrestrial plants. **A. Hapaxanthic (or monocarpic) herbs. ***1. Aestival annual plants. ***2. Hibernal annual plants. ***3. Biennial-perennial (dicyclic, pleiocyclic) herbs. **B. Pollacanthic (polycarpic) plants. ***1. Renascent (redivivus) herbs (multicipital rhizomes, mat-geophytes, and rhizome-geophytes, each of them with several subordinate groups). ***2. Rosette-plants (besides the ordinary rosette-herbs and rosette-grasses also the Musa-form and the tuft-trees). ***3. Creeping plants. ***4. Land-plants with long erect long-lived shoots (cushion-plants, under-shrubs, soft-stemmed plants, succulent-stemmed plants, woody plants with long-lived, lignified stems, the last group divided into canopy-trees, shrubs, a dwarf-shrubs).

Clements (1920)

Vegetation-forms: * I. 1. Annuals. * II. 2. Biennials. * III. Herbaceous perennials. ** 3. Sod-grasses. ** 4. Bunch-grasses. ** 5. Bush-herbs. ** 6. Cushion-herbs. ** 7. Mat-herbs. ** 8. Rosette-herbs. ** 9. Carpet-herbs. ** 10. Succulents. * IV. Woody perennials. ** 11. Halfshrubs. ** 12. Bushes. ** 13. Succulents. ** 14. Shrubs. ** 15. Trees.

Rübel (1930)

*Magniligniden *Parviligniden *Semiligniden *Sukkulenten *Epiphyten *Lianen *Herbiden *Saxiden *Errantiden

Du Rietz (1931)

Main life-forms ("Grundformen") system: *A. Woody plants or Holoxyles ("ligneous plants", "lignose" of many earlier authors, "Ligniden" Du Rietz 1921, "Xyloids" Warming 1923). **I. Trees. **II. Shrubs. **III. Dwarf-shrubs. **IV. Woody cushion-plants. **V. Woody lianas. *B. Half-shrubs, or Hemixyles (semi-woody plants, "Semiligniden" Rübel 1930). **I. Tall half-shrubs. **II. Dwarf half-shrubs. *C. Herbaceous plants ("Herbiden" Du Rietz 1921). **I. Chtonophytic, non-lianoid. **II. Epiphytoidic. **III. Parasitic on trunks or branches of trees, shrubs, or dwarf-shrubs. **IV. Herbaceous lianes. Growth-form system: * a. Main stem-types in flowering-plants. ** A. Geocorms. *** I. Plagiogeocorms. *** II. Orthooeocorms. ** B. Aërocorms. *** I. Herbaceous aërocorms. *** II. Ligneous aerocorrns. * b. Growth-forms on the basis of stem-types and stem-type combinations. ** A. Holoxyles *** I. Trees. *** II. Shrubs. *** III. Dwarf-shrubs. *** IV. Woody Cushion-plants. ** B. Hemixyles. *** I. True Half-shrubs (suffrutices). *** II. Cane Half-shrubs (virgulta).

Ellenberg & Mueller-Dombois (1967)

Main groups of plant life forms: * Aa Autotrophic plants ** Ba Kormophytes (= vascular plants) *** Ca Self-supporting plants **** Da Woody plants, or herbaceous evergreen perennials ***** Phanerophytes ***** Chamaephytes **** Db Perennial (including biennial) herbaceous plants with periodic shoot reduction ***** Hemicryptophytes ***** Geophytes (Cryptophytes) **** Dc Annuals ***** Therophytes *** Cb Plants that grow by supporting themselves on others **** Ea Plants that root in the ground ***** Lianas (Eu-lianas) ***** Hemi-epiphytes (Pseudo-lianas) **** Eb Plants that germinate and root on other plants (these include dead standing plants, telegraph poles and wires, stumps and such like) ***** Epiphytes *** Cc Free-moving water plants (= errants) **** Errant vascular Hydrophytes ** Bb Thallophytes (= non-vascular cryptogams) *** Fa Plants attached to the ground surface **** Ga Perennials ***** Thallo-chamaephytes ***** Thallo-hemicryptophytes **** Gb Annuals ***** Thallo-therophytes *** Fb Fb Plants attached to others **** Thallo-epiphytes *** Fc Free-moving autotrophic thallophytes (= errants) **** Ha Photosynthesizers ***** Errant thallo-hydrophytes ***** Kryophytes ***** Edaphophytes **** Hb Chemosynthesizers ***** Chemo-edaphophytes * Ab Semi-autotrophic plants ** Ia Kormophytes *** Vascular Semi-parasites ** Ib Thallophytes *** Thallo-semi-parasites * Ac Heterotrophic plants ** Ka Kormophytes *** Vascular Parasites *** Vascular Saprophytes ** Kb Thallophytes *** Thallo-parasites ***Thallo-saprophytes

Other categorizations

Following, other morphological, ecological, physiological or economic categorizations of plants. According to the general appearance (

habit A habit (or wont as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

): * Woody plants :*

Trees In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are u ...

Shrubs A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

:** subshrubs :*

Lianas A liana is a long- stemmed, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy in search of direct sunlight. The word ''liana'' does not refer to a t ...

Herbaceous plants Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of ...

s * Other:

vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themsel ...

s (

lianas A liana is a long- stemmed, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy in search of direct sunlight. The word ''liana'' does not refer to a t ...

and nonwoody vines),

cushion plant A cushion plant is a compact, low-growing, mat-forming plant that is found in alpine, subalpine, arctic, or subarctic environments around the world. The term "cushion" is usually applied to woody plants that grow as spreading mats, are limited in ...

s and rosettes,

cane Cane or caning may refer to: *Walking stick or walking cane, a device used primarily to aid walking * Assistive cane, a walking stick used as a mobility aid for better balance *White cane, a mobility or safety device used by many people who are ...

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

-like plants (see Glossary of plant morphology#Plant habit) According to leaf hardness, size and orientation in relation to sunlight: *

Sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or oblique to direct ...

leaves * Orthophyll or hyptiophyll leaves According to the

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

: *

Terrestrial plant A terrestrial plant is a plant that grows on, in, or from land. Other types of plants are aquatic (living in water), epiphytic (living on trees) and lithophytic (living in or on rocks). The distinction between aquatic and terrestrial plants i ...

s *Aquatic (

hydrophytes Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that g ...

macrophytes Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments ( saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that ...

) *Aerial plants (

epiphytes An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphytes grow are called phoroph ...

) * Lithophytes According to the water content of the environment: * Aquatic plants (

) * Marsh plants (

helophytes Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments (saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that g ...

) * Moisture plants (

hygrophyte A Hygrophyte (Greek ''hygros'' = wet + ''phyton'' = plant) is a plant living above ground that is adapted to the conditions of abundant moisture pads of surrounding air. These plants inhabit mainly wet and dark forests and islands darkened swam ...

s) * Drought plants (

xerophyte A xerophyte (from Ancient Greek language, Greek ξηρός ''xeros'' 'dry' + φυτόν ''phuton'' 'plant') is a species of plant that has adaptations to survive in an environment with little liquid water, such as a desert such as the Sahara or pl ...

s) *

Mesophyte Mesophytes are terrestrial plants which are neither adapted to particularly dry nor particularly wet environments. An example of a mesophytic habitat would be a rural temperate meadow, which might contain goldenrod, clover, oxeye daisy, and ''Rosa ...

s * Phreatophytes According to

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north ...

(in

vegetation Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic charac ...

classification): *

Tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

Subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north a ...

Temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...

* Subpolar *

Polar Polar may refer to: Geography Polar may refer to: * Geographical pole, either of two fixed points on the surface of a rotating body or planet, at 90 degrees from the equator, based on the axis around which a body rotates *Polar climate, the cli ...

According to

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

(in vegetation classification): *

Pluvial In geology and climatology, a pluvial is either a modern climate characterized by relatively high precipitation or an interval of time of variable length, decades to thousands of years, during which a climate is characterized by relatively high ...

(ombrophilous) *

Seasonal A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

Drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

Cloud forest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud ...

Rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

According to

altitude Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...

(in vegetation classification): *

Montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

Submontane Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topogra ...

Lowland Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland. Definitions Upland and lowland are portions of p ...

According to the loss of leaves (in vegetation classification): *

Deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, ...

(caducifolious) *

Semi-deciduous Semi-deciduous or semi-evergreen is a botanical term which refers to plants that lose their foliage for a very short period, when old leaves fall off and new foliage growth is starting. This phenomenon occurs in tropical and sub-tropical woody spe ...

(semicaducifolious) *

Evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, whic ...

(perennifolious) According to the luminosity of the environment: * Heliophytes * Sciophytes (embryophytes) According to the mode of nutrition: *

Parasite plant A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All parasitic plants develop a specialized organ called the ...

s *

Hemiparasite A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All parasitic plants develop a specialized organ called th ...

s *

Carnivorous plant Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants still generate some of their energy from photosynthesis ...

s *

Mycotroph A mycotroph is a plant that gets all or part of its carbon, water, or nutrient supply through symbiotic association with fungi. The term can refer to plants that engage in either of two distinct symbioses with fungi: *Many mycotrophs have a m ...

s According to soil factors: *

Metallophyte A metallophyte is a plant that can tolerate high levels of Heavy metal (chemistry), heavy metals such as lead. Such plants range between "obligate metallophytes" (which can only survive in the presence of these metals), and "facultative metallophyte ...

s *

Halophyte A halophyte is a salt-tolerant plant that grows in soil or waters of high salinity, coming into contact with saline water through its roots or by salt spray, such as in saline semi-deserts, mangrove swamps, marshes and sloughs and seashores. Th ...

s * Glycophytes According to the capacity to avoid

dehydration In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water, with an accompanying disruption of metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds free water intake, usually due to exercise, disease, or high environmental temperature. Mil ...

: * Poikilohydric plants * Homoiohydric plants According to short-term fluctuations in water balance: * Hydrolabile plants * Hydrostable plants According to the range of

drought A drought is defined as drier than normal conditions.Douville, H., K. Raghavan, J. Renwick, R.P. Allan, P.A. Arias, M. Barlow, R. Cerezo-Mota, A. Cherchi, T.Y. Gan, J. Gergis, D. Jiang, A. Khan, W. Pokam Mba, D. Rosenfeld, J. Tierney, an ...

humidity Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present. Humidity dep ...

tolerance: * Stenohydric plants * Euryhydric plants According to

longevity The word " longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for " life expectancy" in demography. However, the term ''longevity'' is sometimes meant to refer only to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is always ...

: *

Annual plant An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seeds, within one growing season, and then dies. The length of growing seasons and period in which they take place vary according to geographical ...

s *

Biennial plant A biennial plant is a flowering plant that, generally in a temperate climate, takes two years to complete its biological life cycle. Life cycle In its first year, the biennal plant undergoes primary growth, during which its vegetative structures ...

s *

Perennial plant A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

s According to the type of

photosynthesis Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored in ...

: * C3 plants * C4 plants * CAM plants According to origin:Alienígenas na sala: o que fazer com espécies exóticas em trabalhos de taxonomia, florística e fitossociologia?
Moro, M. F. et al. *

Exotic plants An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived there ...

Native plants In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equi ...

Naturalised Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

or subspontaneous plants According to

biogeographic Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics * Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...

: *

Endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

plants *

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Food and drink * Cosmopolitan (cocktail), also known as a "Cosmo" History * Rootless cosmopolitan, a Soviet derogatory epithet during Joseph Stalin's anti-Semitic campaign of 1949–1953 Hotels and resorts * Cosmopoli ...

plants * Disjunct plants According to invasiveness: *

Invasive plant An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species adv ...

* Noninvasive plant According to establishment time in an

ecological succession Ecological succession is the process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time. The time scale can be decades (for example, after a wildfire) or more or less. Bacteria allows for the cycling of nutrients such as car ...

: * Pioneer plants or

ruderal plants A ruderal species is a plant species that is first to colonize disturbed lands. The disturbance may be natural for example, wildfires or avalanchesor the consequences of human activities, such as construction ( of roads, of buildings, mining, et ...

Climax Climax may refer to: Language arts * Climax (narrative), the point of highest tension in a narrative work * Climax (rhetoric), a figure of speech that lists items in order of importance Biology * Climax community, a biological community t ...

plants According to human cultivation: *

Domesticated plants This is a list of plants that have been domesticated by humans. The list includes individual plant species identified by their common names as well as larger formal and informal botanical categories which include at least some domesticated individ ...

Cultigens A cultigen () or cultivated plant is a plant that has been deliberately altered or selected by humans; it is the result of artificial selection. These plants, for the most part, have commercial value in horticulture, agriculture or forestry. Beca ...

Wild Wild, wild, wilds or wild may refer to: Common meanings * Wild animal * Wilderness, a wild natural environment * Wildness, the quality of being wild or untamed Art, media and entertainment Film and television * ''Wild'' (2014 film), a 2014 A ...

plants According to importance to humans (see

ethnobotany Ethnobotany is the study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for m ...

): *

Edible plants Edible plants include: * List of culinary fruits * List of culinary herbs and spices * List of culinary nuts * List of edible cacti * List of edible flowers * List of edible seeds *List of forageable plants (edible plants commonly found in the wi ...

Medicinal plants Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including defense and protection ag ...

Ornamental plants Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that ...

Timber tree Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

s *

Indicator plants A bioindicator is any species (an indicator species) or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. The most common indicator species are animals. For example, copepods and other sma ...

Weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...

s *

Poisonous plants Plants that produce toxins are referred to as poisonous plants. Plants that cause irritation on contact are also described as "poisonous". The toxins in poisonous plants affect herbivores, and deter them from consuming the plants. Plants cannot ...

References

External links

* * Pillar, V.D. & L. Orlóci. 2004. Character-Based Community Analysis: The Theory and an Application Program. Electronic Edition available at http://ecoqua.ecologia.ufrgs.br. 213 p.

{{Anatomy Plant life-forms, Ecology