Reprinted from THE PLANT WORLD, VOL. 20, No. 9, pp. 267-287, September, 1917 



THE INDICATOR SIGNIFICANCE OF NATIVE 



VEGETATION IN THE DETERMINATION 



OF FOREST SITES 



CLARENCE F. KORSTIAN 



United States Forest Service, Ogden, Utah 



Phytogeographers have long recognized certain variations in 

 the native vegetation of given regions, while phytoecologists 

 have only recently made notable advances in the correlation of 

 the vegetation with the climatic and edaphic factors of the 

 habitat. Within the last decade the physiological ecologist has 

 been doing some excellent work on the correlation of the native 

 vegetation with the crop-producing potentialities of the land, 

 the results of which have a very practical application in present- 

 day agriculture. 



As a result of detailed studies in the Great Plains region of 

 eastern Colorado, Shantz 1 concludes that the character of 'the 

 native plant cover can be used as a reliable indicator of the con- 

 ditions favorable or unfavorable for crop production, provided 

 the relation between the vegetation and the environment is 

 correctly interpreted. The correlations which exist in the 

 Great Plains between the different types of vegetation and the 

 physical characteristics of the corresponding types of land are 

 described in detail. Shantz discusses at length the ways in 

 which the native vegetation may be used in that region to deter- 

 mine the adaptability of the land for dry farming. The crop 

 production on wire-grass land during favorable years is almost 

 as good as on short-grass land and during normal and dry years 

 much better crops are produced on wire-grass than on short- 

 grass land. Using the native vegetation as an indicator of the 



1 Shantz, H. L. Native Vegetation as an Indicator of the Capabilities of Land 

 for Crop Production in the Great Plains Area, U. S. Dept. of Agri., Bur. of Plant 

 Ind. Bui. 201, 100 pp. 1911. 



267 



