Vegetation is assemblages of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader than the term flora which refers to species composition. Perhaps the closest synonym is plant community, but vegetation can, and often does, refer to a wider range of spatial scales than that term does, including scales as large as the global. Primeval redwood forests, coastal mangrove stands, sphagnum bogs, desert soil crusts, roadside weed patches, wheat fields, cultivated gardens and lawns; all are encompassed by the term vegetation.

The vegetation type is defined by characteristic dominant species, or a common aspect of the assemblage, such as an elevation range or environmental commonality.Earth cover is the expression used by ecologist Frederic Clements that has its closest modern equivalent being vegetation. The expression continues to be used by the Bureau of Land Management.

In medicine, a vegetation is an abnormal growth named for its similarity to natural vegetation.

Vegetations are often associated with endocarditis.

It can be made of fibrin and platelets.

Types

Certain conditions are associated with specific vegetation patterns:

References