This seems a little strange to classify all the plants in an area by the few rare species that are common and dominant!
In fact, the concept is not fundamental:
Plants live where they can; they do not have any kind of relationship with the other species in any particular community. I.e., plant communities are more like the set of people at an airport hub changing planes.
Little predictive value in telling you anything else. I was going to hand out a list of species typical for each SRP community, but there aren't any other than the defining types! (Also, remember the species found at only one location at the SRP?)
No two botanists agree on the same set of plant communities
A given area will often be classified completely differently by different botanists
Some botanists argue that the concept doesn't exist.
However, the plant-community concept is often useful as a shorthand description of different areas of Southern California.
http://tchester.org/srp/plants/communities/10a1.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester
Last update: 6 November 2005.