Transcript Vegetation - Succession

Vegetation
By Namaste Leister
Types of Vegetation
There are many different kinds of vegetation, with
different ways of recognizing and classifying
them.
There are:
• Trees and shrubs
• Grass like plants
• Forbes
• Bryophytes
• Fungi and lichen
Trees and Shrubs
• Trees are quite similar to shrubs, they
are both wood, though you can tell then
apart easily.
• Trees are larger the shrubs when they are fully matured.
Trees reach a size greater then 7meters, where as
shrubs never become that large.
• Shrubs and trees both have bark, though the bark of
trees is thicker then the bark of shrubs.
• Deciduous plants like trees and shrubs loses their leaves
every fall, growing new ones back in the following spring.
Grass Like Plants
There are three types of grassy plants:
• True grasses- these plants have round
and hollow stems.
• Rushes- these plants have round and spongy stems.
• Sedges- these plants can be identified from the others
by the rhyme “sedges have edges”, these plants unlike
true grasses and rushes don’t have round stems, they
have triangular or edged stems.
Forbes
• Forbes have soft stems, and they
will eventually flower.
• These flowers will usually die back each year.
• They are either: annual, meaning dyeing back every
year, biennial, die back every two years, or perennial,
living for more then 2 years.
• Insects and other animals will gather or eat parts of
these plants, for example bumble bees will take pollen
from most flowers.
• People treasure the beauty and diversity of these plants.
Bryophytes
• Bryophytes are mossy, primitive plants.
• These plants are very important, they
turn inorganic materials like rocks into soil. This
process is necessary for primary succession.
• Found in moist locations, thought they are
dominant in the upland river zones.
Fungi and Lichen
• Though fungi is not truly plants, they do share characteristics with
plants, along with animals, they also have some unique
characteristics of their own.
• Like plants, fungi are rooted in place and produce spores, though
their cell structure and reproduction methods are unlike any other.
• Fungi are always found in days after wet weather.
• Lichen, is two organisms, algae and fungi, living in a mutualistic
symbiotic relationship (meaning the
two organisms live together,
depending on each other for survival).
• Because of this relationship lichen are
able to live in unique habitats they
otherwise wouldn’t be able to survive in.
• Lichen are most often found in the upland
zone, living on trees, rocks, and shrubs.