19G 



CLASSIFICATION OF PLANT COMMUNITIES 



It should be understood that when we say a consociation is char- 

 acterized by a single dominant we do not mean that it consists of the 

 dominant species only. It consists of the dominant species and all 

 of the secondary species that occur along with the dominants. 

 That is, just as an association is made up of all of the dominant and 

 secondary plants that are growing in the community, so the white 

 oak consociation mentioned above would consist of all of the plants 

 that were living in that part of the association dominated by white 

 oak alone. 



124. Faciations.— Some associations have as many as ten or more 

 dominants. In such cases there are usually portions of the associa- 



FiG. 85.— A spring beauty society in a forest association. 



A. G. Eldredge.) 



(Photograph by 



tion that are characterized by the grouping of dominants. That is, 

 because of slight differences in environmental conditions, various 

 combinations of two or more of the several dominants may occupy 

 certain areas within the association. Such morphological parts of 

 the association are called faciations. They may be characterized 

 by any number of dominants above one and below the total number 

 in the association. 



125. Societies.— A plant society is a morphological part of an 

 association characterized by one or more subdominant species 

 (Fig. 85). A subdominant species is one that exerts a measure of 



