Vegetation

Vegetation is an assemblage of plants and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader than the term flora which refers to species composition. Perhaps the closest synonym is plant community, but "vegetation" can, and often does, refer to a wider range of spatial scales than that term does, including scales as large as the global. Primeval redwood forests, coastal mangrove stands, sphagnums, desert soil crusts, roadside weed patches, wheat fields, cultivated gardens and lawns; all are encompassed by the term "vegetation". The vegetation type is defined by characteristic dominant species, or a common aspect of the assemblage, such as an elevation range or environmental commonality. The contemporary use of "vegetation" approximates that of ecologist Frederic Clements' term earth cover, an expression still used by the Bureau of Land Management.