Subject: British botany/ecology references?

From: [email-masked] (MMMavocado)
Date: 20 Sep 1996 23:48:19 -0400

Florida Southern College offers an academic term in England, each summer. 
In 1997, I'm hoping to offer a course in that program, which would be a
survey of the botany and ecology of Britain's plant communities.  

I would like to find background literature to prepare for the course but
am not finding many references to the subject, here in Florida.  Could
anyone in this group recommend books or other reference material?  Thanks.

Malcolm M. Manners
Chairman, Department of
Citrus and Ornamental Horticulture
Florida Southern College
111 Lake Hollingsworth Drive
Lakeland, FL 33801-5698  USA

[email-masked]

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From: Peter Selby <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 21 Sep 1996 10:32:40 +0100

> I would like to find background literature to prepare for the course ....

The standard reference work on the flora is New Flora of the British 
Isles, by Clive Stace ISBN 0-521-42793-2.  This is an identification 
guide to the flora a provides keys and descriptions for all natives 
and aliens likely to be found in the wild - around 2000 species.  No 
many really compared to the USA.

Because UK is small in area these plants are packed together in many 
very different communities.  The way the species are distributed has 
also been affected by the Ice ages, separation of Britain and Ireland 
at separate times from continental Europe, climatic effects like the 
Gulf Stream and by the intervention of man through land management.

I live in Hampshire which is in the South of Britain and a Flora of 
the county has recently been published.  'The Flora of Hampshire' by 
Anne Brewis, Paul Bowman and Francis Rose ISBN 0-946589-53-4.  This 
contains a history of the vegetation and a description of present day 
habitats and vegetation for the county.  The county has an area of 
3,800 square km and 1400 established wild vascular plants, probably 
more than any other county of Britain.

The number of habitats described amounts to Coastal habitats, with 
three mudflat communities plus shingle and dune communities - no rock 
cliffs though.  Another large area is the New Forest, 20,000 hectares 
with Pasture Woodlands, Inclosures, Dry heaths and Valley Mires.  
Other habitats are tertiary heaths, wealden heaths and hythe bed 
heaths.  The centre of the county is renowned for its chalk 
grassland, with associaed chalk woodland.  Then there are Calcaerous 
fens and fen meadows, old acid meadows, and other meadows on commons 
- i.e. communally grazed meadows.  Woodland types include those of 
the hampshire basin, Tertiary region woodlands, the chalk plateau 
woodlands, chalk hangers, upper greensand hangers, gault woodlands 
lower greensand woodlands, wet and dry and former deer parks.  Other 
habitats include arable land, sunken lanes, waste lands, especially 
near the ports and churchyards.  There are also a range of aquatic habitats.

>From  this I hope you can see that although the overall area of UK is 
small all these habitats are packed in to a small area, like 
Hampshire.  I cvan however recommend the flora as a good description 
of many habitats and their floras, with lists of the many sites that 
can be visited, and distributions of the individual plants.

Hope this isn't too long for you,

Regards

 Pete Selby
([email-masked])

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From: Peter Selby <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 21 Sep 1996 10:32:40 +0100

Regards

 Pete Selby