Plant life-form schemes constitute a way of classifying plants alternatively to the ordinary species-genus-family
scientific classification
image:Hierarchical clustering diagram.png, 280px, Generalized scheme of taxonomy
Taxonomy is a practice and science concerned with classification or categorization. Typically, there are two parts to it: the development of an underlying scheme o ...
. In
colloquial speech
Colloquialism (also called ''colloquial language'', ''colloquial speech'', ''everyday language'', or ''general parlance'') is the linguistic style used for casual and informal communication. It is the most common form of speech in conversation amo ...
, 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, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...
s,
shrub
A shrub or 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 by their multiple ...
s,
herb
Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typically distingu ...
s (
forb
A forb or phorb is a herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid (grass, sedge, or rush). The term is used in botany and in vegetation ecology especially in relation to grasslands and understory. Typically, these are eudicots without woo ...
s and
graminoid
In botany and ecology, a graminoid refers to a herbaceous plant with a grass-like morphology, i.e., elongated culms with long, blade-like leaves. They are contrasted with forbs, herbaceous plants without grass-like features.
The plants most ...
s), etc. The scientific use of life-form schemes emphasizes plant function in the
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...
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 () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical data ...
may have widely different life-form, for example ''
Adoxa moschatellina
''Adoxa moschatellina'', moschatel, is a species of flowering plant in the family (botany), family Adoxaceae which has a highly distinctive inflorescence. This herbaceous perennial plant, perennial grows in relatively sunny places in old woodland ...
'' and ''
Sambucus nigra
''Sambucus nigra'' is a species complex of flowering plants in the family Viburnaceae native to most of Europe. Common names include elder, elderberry, black elder, European elder, European elderberry, and European black elderberry. It grows in ...
'' 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 o ...
and the latter is a
shrub
A shrub or 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 by their multiple ...
or
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, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...
. 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 comm ...
.
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 () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...
ally as non-
polyphyletic
A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...
), 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 (; ), are plants that have lignin, lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They also have a specialized non-lignified Ti ...
s only. ''Plant construction types'' may be used in a broader sense to encompass ''planktophytes'', ''benthophytes'' (mainly
alga
Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular microalgae, suc ...
e) and
terrestrial plant
A terrestrial plant is a plant that grows on, in or from land. Other types of plants are aquatic plant, aquatic (living in or on water), semiaquatic (living at edge or seasonally in water), epiphyte, epiphytic (living on other plants), and litho ...
One of the earliest attempts to classify the life-forms of plants and animals was made by
Aristotle
Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
, whose writings are lost. His pupil,
Theophrastus
Theophrastus (; ; c. 371 – c. 287 BC) was an ancient Greek Philosophy, philosopher and Natural history, naturalist. A native of Eresos in Lesbos, he was Aristotle's close colleague and successor as head of the Lyceum (classical), Lyceum, the ...
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.
A 1903 paper in the ''American Journal of Psychology'' defined a "habit, from the standpoint of psychology, 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 (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, 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 (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. 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 a form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or specializ ...
, 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 no ...
or
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 Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...
s.
The term life-form was first coined by Warming ("livsform") in his 1895 book Plantesamfund,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
An autotroph is an organism that can convert abiotic sources of energy into energy stored in organic compounds, which can be used by other organisms. Autotrophs produce complex organic compounds (such as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) us ...
, the latter group then into aquatic and terrestrial, 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 (', "single" + , "fruit" or "grain"), and was first used by Alphonse de Candolle. Other terms with the same meaning are '' hapaxanth'' ...
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 (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 flowering plants whose seeds contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. A monocot taxon has been in use for several decades, but with various ranks a ...
and dicots as groups. Drude later modified his scheme in (1896), and this scheme was adopted by the influential American plant
ecologist
Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere levels. Ecology overlaps with the closely re ...
s
Frederic Clements
Frederic Edward Clements (September 16, 1874 – July 26, 1945) was an American plant ecologist and pioneer in the study of both plant ecology and vegetation succession.
Biography
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, he studied botany at the University o ...
and
Roscoe Pound
Nathan Roscoe Pound (October 27, 1870 – June 28, 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 was dean of Harvard Law School from 1916 to 1936. He was a ...
.
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 and Stephan Halloy. These schemes approach the concept of plant functional type, which has recently replaced ''life-form'' in a narrow sense.
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, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...
s
*
Shrub
A shrub or 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 by their multiple ...
s
*
Herb
Herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal purposes, or for fragrances. Culinary use typically distingu ...
s
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''
annual plants
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. Globally, 6% of all plant species and 15% of herbaceous plants (excluding trees and shrubs) are an ...
Epiphyte
An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another 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 epiphyt ...
s
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).
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.
A 1903 paper in the '' American Journal of Psychology'' defined a "habit, from the standpoint of psychology, ...
):
*
Woody plants
A woody plant is a plant that produces wood as its structural tissue and thus has a hard stem. In cold climates, woody plants further survive winter or dry season above ground, as opposed to herbaceous plants that die back to the ground until s ...
:*
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, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only p ...
:*
Shrubs
A shrub or 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 by their multiple ...
:**
subshrub
A subshrub (Latin ''suffrutex'') or undershrub is either a small shrub (e.g. prostrate shrubs) or a perennial that is largely herbaceous but slightly woody at the base (e.g. garden pink and florist's chrysanthemum). The term is often interch ...
s
:*
Lianas
A liana is a long-Plant stem, stemmed Woody plant, 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 (biology), canopy in search of direct sunlight. T ...
*
Herbaceous plants
Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent wood, woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennial plant, perennials, and nearly all Annual plant, annuals and Biennial plant, biennials.
Definition ...
**
graminoid
In botany and ecology, a graminoid refers to a herbaceous plant with a grass-like morphology, i.e., elongated culms with long, blade-like leaves. They are contrasted with forbs, herbaceous plants without grass-like features.
The plants most ...
s
* Other:
vine
A vine 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 themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...
s (
lianas
A liana is a long-Plant stem, stemmed Woody plant, 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 (biology), canopy in search of direct sunlight. 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 i ...
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 blind or visually i ...
s,
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
**Palm oil
* Several other plants known as "palm"
Palm or Palms may also refer to:
Music ...
Sclerophyll
Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is parallel or ...
leaves
* Orthophyll or hyptiophyll leaves
According to the
habitat
In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, 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 manifestation of its ...
:
*
Terrestrial plant
A terrestrial plant is a plant that grows on, in or from land. Other types of plants are aquatic plant, aquatic (living in or on water), semiaquatic (living at edge or seasonally in water), epiphyte, epiphytic (living on other plants), and litho ...
epiphytes
An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another 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 epiphyt ...
)
* Lithophytes
According to the water content of the environment:
* Aquatic plants ( hydrophytes)
* Marsh plants (
helophytes
Aquatic plants, also referred to as hydrophytes, are vascular plants and non-vascular plants that have adapted to live in aquatic environments ( saltwater or freshwater). In lakes, rivers and wetlands, aquatic vegetations provide cover for aqua ...
xerophyte
A xerophyte () is a species of plant that has adaptations to survive in an environment with little liquid water. Examples of xerophytes include cacti, pineapple and some gymnosperm plants. The morphology and physiology of xerophytes are adapted to ...
latitude
In geography, latitude is a geographic coordinate system, geographic 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 t ...
(in
vegetation
Vegetation is an assemblage of plants and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular Taxon, taxa, life forms, structure, Spatial ecology, spatial extent, or any other specific Botany, botanic ...
classification):
*
Tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...
*
Subtropical
The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones immediately to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Ge ...
*
Temperate
In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...
climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, 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 meteoro ...
(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 axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...
*
Drought
A drought is a period of 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, ...
*
Cloud forest
A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, Montane forest, montane, Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist forest characteri ...
*
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...
According to
altitude
Altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum (geodesy), datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context (e.g., aviation, geometr ...
(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 lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...
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 a ...
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 Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...
(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 wood ...
(semicaducifolious)
*
Evergreen
In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...
(perennifolious)
According to the luminosity of the environment:
* Heliophytes
* Sciophytes (embryophytes)
According to the mode of nutrition:
* Parasite plants
* Hemiparasites
*
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, and occasionally small mammals and birds. They have adapted to grow in waterlo ...
s
*
Mycotroph
A mycotroph is a plant that gets all or part of its carbon, water, or nutrient supply through symbiotic association with fungi
A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes mic ...
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. ...
s
* Glycophytes
According to the capacity to avoid
dehydration
In physiology, dehydration is a lack of total body water that disrupts metabolic processes. It occurs when free water loss exceeds intake, often resulting from excessive sweating, health conditions, or inadequate consumption of water. Mild deh ...
water balance
The law of water balance states that the inflows to any water system or area is equal to its outflows plus change in storage during a time interval. In hydrology, a water balance equation can be used to describe the flow of water in and out of ...
:
* Hydrolabile plants
* Hydrostable plants
According to the range of
drought
A drought is a period of 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, ...
/
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 (meteorology), precipitation, dew, or fog t ...
tolerance:
* Stenohydric plants
* Euryhydric plants
According to
longevity
Longevity may refer to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is defined Statistics, statistically as the average number of years remaining at a given age. For example, a population's life expectancy at birth ...
:
*
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. Globally, 6% of all plant species and 15% of herbaceous plants (excluding trees and shrubs) are ...
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.
Background
In its first year, the biennial plant undergoes primary growth, during which its vegetative structur ...
s
*
Perennial plant
In horticulture, the term perennial (''wikt:per-#Prefix, per-'' + ''wikt:-ennial#Suffix, -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annual plant, annuals and biennial plant, biennials. It has thus been d ...
s
According to the type of
photosynthesis
Photosynthesis ( ) is a system of biological processes by which photosynthetic organisms, such as most plants, algae, and cyanobacteria, convert light energy, typically from sunlight, into the chemical energy necessary to fuel their metabo ...
:
*
C3 plants
carbon fixation is the most common of three metabolic pathways for carbon fixation in photosynthesis, the other two being and CAM. This process converts carbon dioxide and ribulose bisphosphate (RuBP, a 5-carbon sugar) into two molecules of ...
Naturalised
Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-national of a country acquires the nationality of that country after birth. The definition of naturalization by the International Organization for Migration of the ...
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 varia ...
:
*
Endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...
plants
*
Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan may refer to:
Internationalism
* World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship
* Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community
* Cosmopolitan ...
plants
* Disjunct plants
According to invasiveness:
*
Invasive plant
An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native speci ...
* Noninvasive plant
According to establishment time in an
ecological succession
Ecological succession is the process of how species compositions change in an Community (ecology), ecological community over time.
The two main categories of ecological succession are primary succession and secondary succession. Primary successi ...
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 th ...
ethnobotany
Ethnobotany is an interdisciplinary field at the interface of natural and social sciences that studies the relationships between humans and plants. It focuses on traditional knowledge of how plants are used, managed, and perceived in human socie ...
):
*
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 t ...
*
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 Plant defense against h ...
Weed
A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, growing where it conflicts with human preferences, needs, or goals.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. Pla ...
*
* 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.
{{Vegetation
Plant life-forms, Ecology