vegetation
/vɛdʒɪˈteɪʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1Plants considered collectively, especially those found in a particular area or habitat: the chalk cliffs are mainly sheer with little vegetation...
- Clear all grass or other vegetation from the area that you have selected.
- Aspergillus fumigatus is a common fungus that grows on soil, plant debris and rotting vegetation in the autumn and winter.
- The field was plowed just before planting, but natural vegetation was allowed to regrow during the experiment.
Synonyms
plants, plant life, flora;
greenery, foliage
rare herbage, verdure
2The action or process of vegetating.Two irrigation regimes were compared and plants were sampled at four stages of vegetation.
Derivatives
vegetational
- By employing pollen analysis, scientists have been able to reconstruct past vegetational communities and analyse how those vegetation patterns have changed over time.
- Pollen from deposits also produces sequences of climatic and vegetational change, but these tend to be fairly localized.
- Indirect evidence suggests that changes in prairie vole grazing patterns and reproductive physiology may be in part responsible for vegetational changes.
Origin
Mid 16th century (in sense 2): from medieval Latin vegetatio(n-) 'power of growth', from the verb vegetare (see vegetate).