Attributes of British and Irish Plants - Natural Environment Research ...

More documents

Recommendations

Info

SIZE A ND LI FE HIS TOR Y A TTRIB UTES H eight and length Heights, measured in cent imet res, are given for terrestrial (or emergent) plants and lengths (cm) for submerged aquatic plants. A few amphibious or emergent plants such as Persicaria amphibia are scored for both height and length. These values are int ended as a general indication of the size of the plant. For procumbent plants, heights are an indicat ion of the height of the less procumbent shoots. For scapose plants and ferns, heights are not stem lengths but leaf lengths. Likewise, lengths for isoetids (i.e. linear-leaved rosette-forming root ed aquat ics) are in fact leaf lengths. For example Lobelia dortmanna has length 4 cm, which is certainly not the length of t he scape. Height and length values were drawn from a variety of sources, which are detailed in the Appendix. Perennat ion The categories are annual, biennial and perennial. Biennial is used as a short hand to denote also monocarpic perennials. For example Car /Ma vulgaris and Heracleum mantegazzianum normally take several years to reach maturity but are categorized as biennials. The sources of data for perennation are most ly t he same as t hose used for height and length. In a few cases (e.g. Linum catharticum), we have relied on personal communication and scientifi c papers rat her than fl oras. A relat ively small number of species fall into more t han one of these categories. The secondary category is intended to be either less frequent or equally frequent. Thus Poe annua has primary perennation category P I =annual and secondary category P2 = perennial. Several fl oras suggest t hat Cardamine flexuosa and Montia fontana can be annual, biennial or perennial. These have been coded as PI = p, P2 = a and PI = a, P2 = p respectively. Life form The Raunkiaer system of life forms was set out by Clapham,Tutin & Warburg (1962), who listed life forms for most species. Their assignments provide an excellent starting point but contain numerous inconsistencies. Life forms have been fully revised for PLANTATT. Following German and Swiss aut hors (e.g. Lindacher, 1995), the category of helophytes or marsh plants has been omitt ed. The majority of t hese can grow in places that are not permanently fl ooded in winter. The position of the overwintering buds in such situations is taken as a guide to t heir life form. An additional life form of annual water plants has been added, so t hat t he category t herophytes are all terrest rial. As with perennat ion, a secondary life form is given for some species. Details of how life forms were assigned and the relation of life form to plant height are given in t he Appendix. Woodiness Woodiness is an attribut e that applies to some chamaephytes, nanophanerophytes and phanerophytes. All ot her life forms are t reated as herbaceous. Three categories are recognized, woody, semi-woody and herbaceous. Although we have been guided in part by Clapham,Tutin & W arburg ( 1962), we have not hesitated to express our own opinions where these diff er.
Table 3. Size and life history attributes other t han clonality; counts of primary att ributes are in the column N 1=, count s of secondary attributes are in N 2= Attribute or code N 1= N2= Explanat io n (a) Height (cm) Hght Height (leaf length for scapose plants and ferns) (b) Length (cm) Len Length (aquatic plants; leaf length for isoetids) (c) Perennation PI P2 Primary and secondary type of perennation a 455 14 Annual b 96 14 Biennial, including monocarpic perennials p 1334 42 Perennial (d) Life form L Fl LF2 Primary and secondary fi fe form (see Table Al ) (e) Woodiness Ch 148 24 Chamaephyte Gb 32 Bulbous geophyte Gn 134 11 Non-bulbous geophyte (rhizome, corm or tuber) hc 8 11 50 Hemicryptophyte Hy 124 34 Perennial hydrophyt e (perennial water plant) H z 25 1 Annual hydrophyte (aquatic therophyte) Ph 108 15 Mega-, meso- and microphanerophyte Pn 73 2 1 Nanophanerophyte T h 430 14 Therophyte (annual land plant) 1651 Herbaceous sw 27 Semi-woody Vt 207 Woody Clonality Clonal growt h is defi ned here as vegetative reproduct ion combined with lateral spread. Like perennat ion, clonality may have more t han one value for a given species, refl ecting the various ways in which clonal growth may occur. In some species t here are varieties with clonal growt h (Arrhenatherum elatius van bulbosum, Caltha palustris var. radicans) while the normal form is not markedly clonal. In these two species, the variety with clonal growth is less frequent than the type variety, so that both plants are given Clone] = 0 (not spreading clonally) as the primary state, whereas Clone2 = D Rg and Sto12 respectively. Two species with proliferous infl orescences really ought to have been assigned to three categories, namely Juncus bulbosus (N ode2, Irreg and omitted DRi) and Butomus umbellatus (Rhiz2, DRg and omitted D Ri). It did not seem wort h having a third column just for these two, so the inflorescence character has been omitt ed.
Page 1: t Cent re for Ecology & Hydrology N
Page 4 and 5: @ NERC Copyright 2004 Print ed in 2
Page 6 and 7: IN TR OD UCTI ON In the course of o
Page 8 and 9: SPE CIES, FAMILIES, S TA TUS A ND C
Page 12 and 13: Table 4. Cat egor ies of clonality;
Page 14 and 15: GE OGRAPHI C A TTRIB UTES Euro ean
Page 16 and 17: Table 7. Counts of squares and clim
Page 18 and 19: Table 8. Coastal species and prefer
Page 20 and 21: M oisture values (F) Unlike the ot
Page 22 and 23: Salt tolerance (5) Values for salt
Page 24 and 25: Taxo n name Fa m NS CS RS C hg Hght
Page 26 and 27: S Taxon name Fam NS CS RS Chg Hght
Page 30 and 31: Taxon name Fan/ NS CS RS Chg Hght L
Page 32 and 33: Taxon name Fam NS CS RS Chg Hght Le
Page 34 and 35: S , Taxon name Fam NS CS RS Chg Hgh
Page 36 and 37: N IR Origin LF2 1 P2 Chg RS n n n x
Page 38 and 39: F R N S 5 57 45 0 7 5 3 7 5 3 0 0 3
Page 40: S Taxon name Fan/ NS CS RS Chg li g
Page 43 and 44: Taxon name Fam NS CS RS Chg_ Hght L
Page 46 and 47: Taxon name Fam NS CS RS Chg Hght Le
Page 48 and 49: Taxon name Fam NS CS RS Chg. Hght L
Page 50 and 51: S P2 LF1 LF2 W Clonel Clone2 E1 E2
Page 52 and 53: CI Tja n 12 5.2 3 3.6 0 3.6 0 3.6 0
Page 54 and 55: , Taxon name Fam NS CS RS Chg Fight
Page 56 and 57: S 1
Page 60 and 61:
Taxon name Fam NS CS RS Chg Hght Le
Page 62 and 63:
W Clonel Clone2 El E2 C Origin GB I
Page 64 and 65:
S Taxon name Fam NS CS RS Chg_ Hght
Page 66 and 67:
A PPE NDIX Sources or Mot hei ht Pl
Page 68 and 69:
hemicryptophytes is often hard to a
Page 70 and 71:
Broad Habitats are intended to be c
Page 72 and 73:
BH 9 Bracken This is small type, de
Page 74 and 75:
The expected number of occurrences
Page 76 and 77:
B IB LI OGRA PH Y Aeschimann, D. &
Page 78:
Raunkiaer, C. ( 1934) The life form
show all

Attributes of British and Irish Plants - Natural Environment Research ...

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?