Raunkiær plant life-form system
Sistema de Raunkiær
- Date
- 1904 · confidence medium
- Place
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Credited to
- Christen C. Raunkiær
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
A classification of plants according to the position of their renewal buds relative to the ground during the unfavourable season, devised by Danish botanist Christen Raunkiær. It allows vegetation composition to be compared across different climates using 'biological spectra'.
Presented by Raunkiær to the Danish Botanical Society in 1904 and developed in further publications up to 1907.
What it led to
- quantitative comparison of floras across climates via biological spectra
- a foundation of modern vegetation ecology and phytogeography
- later extensions of the system by other authors