Use of monocharacteristic growth forms and phenological phases to describe and differentiate plant communities in Mediterranean-type ecosystems

The ecomorphological and phenological study was carried out within a Mediterranean vegetation context, in Quercus suber forests, which have been substituted by shrublands of Cistus spp within two Natural Parks in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. The ecomorphological characters that show meaningful differences between both types of vegetation are: location of renewal buds, spinescence, stratification, maximum height of the vegetation, organs periodically shed, leaf consistency, leaf tomentosity, leaf size, and life duration of leaves, plant duration, vegetative regeneration after fire, main vegetative growth season, main flowering season and fruit type. The phenological phases also help to discern between forest and shrubland, specially flower bud formation, fruiting, seed dispersal, and the existence of brachyblast vegetative growth and brachyblast leaf shedding. We propose three new indexes based on phenological phases: “active period of the species” (APS), “active period of the community” (APC) and “reproductive/vegetative activity of the species” (RVA). The results of their application, in combination with the ecomorphological characters, have proved promising in describing vegetation and in clearly differentiating communities. The results also show the existence of different ecomorphological groups of plants at community level, with consequent ecological, historical, phytocoenological and adaptive implications