Plant Formation

a group of plant associations whose main strata consist of the same species (for example, all associations in which meadow foxtail or Scotch pine is dominant). A plant formation can include genetically and ecologically different associations. For example, a formation of Scotch pine forests can embrace sphagnum pine groves and pine groves with plants typical of broad-leaved forests. Hence, some modern geobotanists use the term “plant formation” without any connotation of rank or taxonomic unit. The term was introduced by the German plant geographer A. Grisebach in 1838 and was used for a long time thereafter in a sense close to plant association or phytocoenosis. Plant associations are usually combined into classes.