Overview & Learning Objectives

We’ve discussed families and diversity, and danced around the edges of plant communities. Since the beginning of time, human beings from different families have come together to form communities. The simplest reason for this behavior is survival: safety in numbers, ability to share tasks and build on strengths. The strongest communities are those that meet the basic survival needs of their members and then some, providing other elements that support thriving and growth. These communities then truly become home to their inhabitants. If left to their own devices, herbaceous plants also form communities in environments conducive to their survival. In this lesson, we will explore some of the natural plant communities that include herbaceous plants, how managed or manipulated environments differ, and what is necessary to meet the needs of perennial plants.

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

• Evaluate an environment into which herbaceous  plants could be introduced, and make recommendations for its modification
• Select specific plant communities and choose and group herbaceous plants that might form a similar community in a managed landscape
• Describe how an urban or disturbed site can be manipulated to form plant communities based on specific needs
• Support a position favoring or disagreeing with significant manipulation of sites to create specialized growing conditions and communities