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Physiognomy
Physiognomy is a combination of structural and functional
characteristics. This is favoured for small-scale (large area)
studies (e.g. habitat descriptions for scientists from other disciplines,
such as animal ecologists).
Important physiognomic concepts include
1. Life form
This refers to whether the dominant plants are trees, shrubs,
hummock grasses, tussock grasses, sedges or herbs. One of the
first methods was that of Raunkiaer (1934) who described life
form as position of the perennating bud of a plant with respect
to the ground surface. Description by life form is particularly
useful in the tropics where floristic richness, structural complexity
and the paucity of up-to-date published floras make the preliminary
description of the vegetation extremely difficult.
2. Phenology
Phenology is the description of the life-cycle and growth phases
of individuals (e.g. budding, flowering, setting seed, vegetative
flushing, leafless).
3. Stratification or structure
In this context, stratification refers to the horizontal (spatial
distribution) and vertical (height) layering of vegetation components.
This can also be described for the root zone. (Note: The term
stratification is also used in the context of sampling
design, where it refers to the placement of samples in strata
within the sampling area.)
Many common terms for vegetation are physiognomic descriptions
(e.g. forest, savanna, grassland, woodland). However, these are
also abstract terms, or vegetation types.
back to vegetation descriptions
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