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International Dendrological Research Institute

Glossary

accession
additional collection of different subject from different place or time
backbone/vegetation
except for the naturally open areas (regions that are too cold, too dry, or too wet for forests), most of the natural land area is covered by woody vegetation forming the protective green blanket of the Earth. Typically, a multilayered, diverse habitat and refuge for the plant and animal world; hence it is the "backbone" of the habitats of life on Earth.
botanical documentation
all reference material with a botanical context; the most specific in botany is the herbarium
bryology
science of botany dealing with mosses and liverworts (from Greek: bryon =liverwort; logos=science)
community
plant togetherness as determined by floristical and ecological circumstances; category in plant sociology (cenology) and synecology that studies the constituents, structure, conditions, and rules of coexistence in the vegetation
dendrology
the study of woody plants, trees, shrubs, and woody vines (from Greek: dendron=tree; logos=science)
flora
the total of all different plants (species, forms, varieties) of an area versus vegetation, a total of all plants. The limitation of a flora can be geographical or artificial. For example, the "flora of Michigan" should not include a plant found even a meter outside of its border, for instance in neighboring Indiana
formation (vegetation)
larger vegetation units, such as forest, forest-step (prairie), arctic or alpine dwarf scrub etc. The term goes back to Grisebach (1839), a pioneer in the science of plant geography.
herbarium
a collection of well documented, preserved (usually dry) plant samples equipped with the name (if available), geographical, chronological and collectors data, and typically archived in natural history collections. Dry plant samples provide data for systematical and area-geographical studies, also document "type specimens" the original naming.
old growth (forest)
undisturbed primary forest, typically diverse in species and age of constituents, and is a result of competition and long-time natural selection
temperate zones (TZ)
climate zones with four seasons, typically positioned between 44º - 55º latitude in both hemispheres with characteristics, which must vary as to distance from oceans, seas, and position of main mountain ranges. Humid oceanic cool and warm TZ are basically different from continental ones influenced by the different physical properties of dry land. The northern TZ (boreal) are a transition toward the arctic while the warm temperate zones are a transition toward the tropics. The climate and vegetation zones are repeated on the higher mountain slopes (vertical zonation).
synecology
science of the ecology of plant communities. One basic science of synecology is plant-sociology, which studies the composition of plant communities and evaluates their participation (abundance, dominance).
variability of species
plant morphological diversity in the characteristics (size, shape, color, and so on) of the different organs as an individual or population property or as an environmental effect, or both
woody flora
major components of any forest, the woody plants are perennials with woody stems, which, with their continuous growth, build up, hold and support the assimilating surface: trees, shrubs, and dwarf shrubs

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