Munz: A Plant Community is a regional element of the vegetation that is characterized by the presence of certain dominant species.
This seems a little strange to classify all the plants in an area by the few rare species that are common!
In fact, the concept is not fundamental:
It does not much predictive value in telling you anything else, such as which other species are found in that community.
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, and it does tell you a few things that you often find in that community.
Many authors who have defined plant communities do not place riparian areas or vernal pools as separate communities. For example, riparian areas are found in every other plant community, and the assemblage of plants in them varies with those communities. One way to take that into consideration is to define desert-riparian, alpine-creek-riparian, alluvial-wash-riparian, etc.
http://tchester.org/srp/plants/communities/25.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester
Last update: 6 November 2005.