Plants and Their Habitats

Plants are remarkably adaptive organisms, inhabiting such diverse environments as tropics and tundra, desert and ocean, mountains and marsh. Yet each species has an optimal habitat. There can be many reasons why a plant flourishes in one plot and not in another. For example, because of the differences in slope, or because of the sheltering effect of a large tree, plots just a few feet apart could be receiving very different amounts of water and light. The same conditions of slope or shelter can also be responsible for differences in temperature and wind velocity. Soil composition has a profound effect on plants. While many plants thrive in rich loam, only some specialized types can survive in sand or in compacted clay, and fewer still can find a foothold on rocky ledges. The chapters have been chosen to ensure that the reader gets a complete picture of this subject.