Treeless plant communities of the Tasmanian high country

Abstract

Analyses of the associations of 65 dominant species from 430 quadrats located in Tasmanian treeless high altitude vegetation are used to provide a framework and guidelines for the construction of a typology of plant communities. These communities are listed and discussed within the context of the following vegetation types: bolster heath, deciduous heath, coniferous heath, heath, fjaeldmark, bog, fen, short alpine herbfield, tall alpine herfield and tussock grassland. The distribution of communities is best related to a climatically and geologically-controlled edaphic gradient, a soil drainage gradient and to the vagaries of fire history. The successional status of most of the plant communities is deduced from their patterns of distribution. Several of the alpine dominants usually fail to regenerate after fire. There is insufficient evidence to support a widely suggested cyclic succession process involving bolster plants.