What is Vegetation ? Types with explanation

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Veg­e­ta­tion refers to the plant cov­er or the plant com­mu­ni­ty present on earth . it includes both man made veg­e­ta­tion and nat­ur­al veg­e­ta­tion . the form describes the total plant cov­er in an area or on the sur­face e of the earth as a whole .

Teh flo­ra refers to plants of a par­tic­u­lar region present at a time .Plant com­mu­ni­ty which grow nat­u­ral­ly with­out human aid and remains left un dis­trib­uted for a long time is called as vir­gin vegetation.

The two major type of veg­e­ta­tion include:

1. Nat­ur­al vegetation:

The plants which are found nat­u­ral­ly in an area . This type of veg­e­ta­tion is formed nat­u­ral­ly with­out human inter­ven­tion or with­out agri­cul­tur­al means . This spread of this veg­e­ta­tion is con­trolled by cli­mat­ic con­di­tions of the region.

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2. Man made veg­e­ta­tion or cul­tur­al vegetation

It includes plant species cul­ti­vat­ed by man . Teh plan­ta­tions are done for the pro­duc­tion of wood and fiber, pro­tec­tion of soil and con­ser­va­tion od bio­log­i­cal diversity.

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Veg­e­ta­tions is of dif­fer­ent types - The type of veg­e­ta­tion formed with­in an area is influ­enced by soil for­ma­tion, topog­ra­phy, cli­mate and human impact . The var­i­ous type of veg­e­ta­tion include :

• For­est
• Grass­lands
• Deserts
• Tun­dra / Alpine areas

For­est vegetation :

It refers to plant com­mu­ni­ty where a large area is cov­ered with tall trees . The foliage cov­ers large areas on the ground and shows strat­i­fi­ca­tion with more than one layer.

Trees found in the for­est veg­e­ta­tion main­ly include pine , mahogany, wil­lows , maple , birch­es , rose­wood , man­groves and oaks.The for­est are fur­ther char­ac­terised as ever­green , conif­er­ous , decid­u­ous and rain­for­est depend­ing upon the growth pat­tern fol­lowed by trees or the avail­abil­i­ty of water in the region

Grass­land vegetation :

It includes plant cov­er dom­i­nat­ed by grass or grass like veg­e­ta­tion The grass­lands are called by dif­fer­ent names in dif­fer­ent parts of the world . They are called steppes in Rus­sia, Savan­nahs in Cen­tral Africa ‚prairies in North Amer­i­ca , Pam­pas in south Amer­i­ca and Down in Australia 

Most of the grass­lands are locat­ed in the tem­per­ate zone.

Desert Veg­e­ta­tion :

This type of veg­e­ta­tion is found in dry regions cov­ered with sandy soil and rocky soil . The short shrubs occur in patch­es and are char­ac­terised with thorns , thick stems, long roots, wax coat­ed leaves and stem . 

Plant found in desert areas include cac­tus , date palms, aca­cia , thorny bush­es and coarse grass­es . The area has high tem­per­a­ture and receives lit­tle amount of rainfall . 

The region include west Aus­tralian , Ara­bia , Indi­an desert, Sahara desert , Ata­ca­ma Desert , Kala­hari Desert.

Tun­dra vegetation :

This type of veg­e­ta­tion is found in north Amer­i­ca , europe and Asia . The sub­soil is cov­ered with. Per­mafrost and it is about 1500ft deep . 

The area pos­sess­es few­er trees with stunt­ed shrubs ‚lichens ‚moss­es and wedges. The win­ter are dry and long .

The plants found in tun­dra region includes birch­es, wil­low trees , junipers, mossess, lichens and arc­tic bkue­grass­es, pop­py and catchfly.

Impor­tance Of Veg­e­ta­tion to man

The veg­e­ta­tion is very use­ful to humans because of var­i­ous direct and indi­rect ben­e­fits pro­vid­ed by it. The veg­e­ta­tion pos­sess­es mate­r­i­al of eco­log­i­cal amd eco­nom­ic use.

1. The plants serve as the main source of food for humans. The food is in the form of veg­eta­bles , fruits, grains, cer­als , leaves , seeds.
2. Veg­e­ta­tion is also a nat­ur­al source of mate­r­i­al like rub­ber , gum and paper
3. The plants serve as a source of fibres such as cot­ton and jute.
4. The trees pro­vide wood for con­stric­tion of hous­es ‚bridge ‚poles and furniture.
5. The veg­e­ta­tion pro­vides var­i­ous herbs foe med­i­c­i­nal use.
6. The plants pro­vide oil used foe cooking
7. Plants reg­u­late flow of ele­ments such as car­bon , nitro­gen through bio­geo­chem­i­cal cycles and con­tribute to the local and glob­al ener­gy balances.
8. Plants also affect soil for­ma­tion and influ­ences soil vol­ume, chem­istry , tex­ture and structure.