Box 4.1 The Braun–Blanquet phytosociology classification

Box 4.1 The Braun-Blanquet phytosociology classification This extract largely follows Tivy (1993). The Braun-Blanquet classification is a complicated system based on the Zurich-Montpellier school of phytosociology, which placed emphasis on the total floristic composition. It takes into consideration the constancy (presence) and fidelity (exclusiveness) of species in the classification of stands in which a species is a measure of the evenness of species distribution. On the basis of ‘constancy groupings’, species are classified rare, accidental, accessory or constant, as in the list below. The second figure is the percentage of stands in which a species occurs, which is a measure of species distribution.