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Plant height is measured in meters and relates to fully developed mature generative plants growing in the wild. The data were taken preferably from Kleyer et al. (2008), Guarino et al. (2019), Kaplan et al. (2019), French Flora database (2020) and complemented by additional sources such as national and regional floras. Each species is characterized by a mean value calculated across available datasets.
Axmanová, I. (2022). Plant height. – www.FloraVeg.EU.
Guarino, R., La Rosa, M. & Pignatti, S. (Eds) (2019). Flora d'Italia, volume 4. Bologna: Edagricole.
French Flora database (baseflor), project of Flore et végétation de la France et du Monde: CATMINAT. Available at http://philippe.julve.pagesperso-orange.fr/catminat.htm [accessed June 2020]
Kaplan, Z., Danihelka, J., Chrtek, J. Jr., Kirschner, J., Kubát, K., Štěpánek, J. & Štech, M. (Eds) (2019). Klíč ke květeně České republiky [Key to the flora of the Czech Republic]. Ed. 2. Praha: Academia.
Kleyer, M., Bekker, R. M., Knevel, I. C., Bakker, J. P., Thompson, K., Sonnenschein, M., … Peco, B. (2008). The LEDA Traitbase: A database of life-history traits of the Northwest European flora. Journal of Ecology, 96(6), 1266–1274. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2008.01430.x
Life span categories reflect the length of life duration of individual species. Annual plants finish their life cycle within one growing season. Biennial or short-lived plants are overwintering, growing only vegetatively in the first season and fruiting in the following season/s. Most of them are monocarpic, i.e. they finish their life cycle after producing fruits. Perennial plants can stay in vegetative form for several seasons, repeatedly flower and produce seeds (polycarpic strategy). Some species were assigned to more than one category because of their different life span in different parts of Europe, e.g., annual life span in northern Europe and biennial or short-lived life span in the Mediterranean.
The data were compiled from Klotz et al. 2002, Săvulescu (1952-76) and complemented by additional sources such as national and regional floras. If possible we used also the life form assessment to decide the life span category.
Dřevojan, P., Čeplová, N., Štěpánková, P., & Axmanová, I. (2023). Life span. – www.FloraVeg.EU.
Klotz, S., Kühn, I. & Durka, W. (2002). BIOLFLOR – Eine Datenbank zu biologisch-ökologischen Merkmalen der Gefäßpflanzen in Deutschland. Schriftenreihe für Vegetationskunde, 38, 1–334.
Săvulescu, T. (Ed.) (1952–1976). Flora Republicii Populare Române – Flora Republicii Socialiste România. Vols 1–13. București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Române, Academia Republicii Socialiste România.
The main categories of the life-form classification follow the system of Raunkiaer (1934), which is based on the position of the buds that survive the unfavourable season. In addition, we use auxiliary categories where it is possible to use finer differentiation.
At least one main category is assigned to each species, while some species can belong to more than one main category. Phanerophyte is a perennial woody or succulent plant with regenerative buds higher than 30 cm above the soil surface (includes trees, shrubs and tall succulents, excludes lianas and epiphytes). Chamaephyte is a perennial herb, low woody plant or succulent with regenerative buds above ground level, but not taller than 30 cm (includes dwarf shrubs, semi-shrubs, small succulents and some herbs). Hemicryptophyte is a perennial or biennial herb with regenerative buds on shoots at the ground level. Geophyte is a perennial plant with regenerative buds located belowground, usually with bulbs, tubers, or rhizomes. Hydrophyte is a plant that survives unfavourable seasons by means of buds that are at the bottom of a water body. Therophyte is a summer- or winter-annual herb that survives adverse seasons only as seeds and germinates in autumn, winter or spring. Epiphyte is either parasitic or non-parasitic plant that grows on other plants.
Auxiliary categories are only used for some species. Tree is a phanerophyte with a stem and a crown. Shrub is a phanerophyte branching from the stem base. Woody liana is a phanerophyte in the form of a long-stemmed woody vine. Semi-shrub (i.e. suffruticose chamaephyte) is a chamaephyte with shoots that usually grow straight up, bear leaves and flowers and die at the end of the growing season except for their lower part, which bears buds. Dwarf shrub is a chamaephyte with shoots that lignify instead of dying. Herbaceous liana is a hemicryptophyte, geophyte or therophyte with climbing aboveground stems.
Data were compiled from several databases and floras (Săvulescu 1952–1976, Horváth et al. 1995, Klotz et al. 2002, Tavşanoğlu & Pausas 2018, Guarino et al. 2019, Kaplan et al. 2019, French Flora database), European broad-scale studies (Wagner et al. 2017, Giulio et al. 2020), and different online sources (e.g. GreekFlora.gr). In the case of different assessments in original data sources, we critically revised them using additional sources.
Dřevojan, P., Čeplová, N., Štěpánková, P., & Axmanová, I. (2023) Life form. – www.FloraVeg.EU.
Giulio, S., Acosta, A. T. R., Carboni, M., Campos, J. A., Chytrý, M., Loidi, J., … Marcenò, C. (2020). Alien flora across European coastal dunes. Applied Vegetation Science, 23(3), 317–327. https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12490
GreekFlora.gr. Available at https://www.greekflora.gr/ [accessed June 2020]
Guarino, R., La Rosa, M. & Pignatti, S. (Eds) (2019). Flora d'Italia, volume 4. Bologna: Edagricole.
Horváth, F., Dobolyi, Z. K., Morschhauser, T., Lõkös, L., Karas, L. & Szerdahelyi, T. (1995). Flóra adatbázis 1.2 – taxonlista és attribútum-állomány. [FLORA database 1.2 – lists of taxa and relevant attributes.] Vácrátót: FLÓRA munkacsoport, MTA-ÖBKI, MTM Növénytára.
French Flora database (baseflor), project of Flore et végétation de la France et du Monde: CATMINAT. Available at http://philippe.julve.pagesperso-orange.fr/catminat.htm [accessed June 2020]
Kaplan Z., Danihelka J., Chrtek J. Jr., Kirschner J., Kubát K., Štěpánek J. & Štech M. (Eds.) (2019). Klíč ke květeně České republiky [Key to the flora of the Czech Republic]. Ed. 2. Praha: Academia.
Klotz, S., Kühn, I. & Durka, W. (2002). BIOLFLOR – Eine Datenbank zu biologisch-ökologischen Merkmalen der Gefäßpflanzen in Deutschland. Schriftenreihe für Vegetationskunde, 38, 1–334.
Raunkiaer C. (1934). The life forms of plants and statistical plant geography. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Tavşanoğlu, Ç., & Pausas, J. (2018). A functional trait database for Mediterranean Basin plants. Scientific Data, 5, 180135. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.135
Wagner, V., Chytrý, M., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Pergl, J., Hennekens, S., Biurrun, I., … Pyšek, P. (2017). Alien plant invasions in European woodlands. Diversity and Distributions, 23(9), 969–981. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12592
Săvulescu, T. (Ed.) (1952–1976). Flora Republicii Populare Române – Flora Republicii Socialiste România. Vols 1–13. București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Române, Academia Republicii Socialiste România.
Spinescense indicates the presence of thorns, spines, prickles or spikes. These morphological adaptations help protect plants from herbivores.
Data were compiled from Tavşanoğlu & Pausas (2018), Bagella et al. (2019), complemented by additional sources such as national and regional floras and original observations.
Axmanová, I. (2022). Spinescence. – www.FloraVeg.EU.
Bagella, S., Filigheddu, R., Benesperi, R., Giordani, P., Minuto, L., Viciani, D., … Casazza, G. (2019). Thorn, spine and prickle patterns in the Italian flora. Plant Biosystems,153(1), 118-133. https://doi.org/10.1080/11263504.2018.1474961
Tavşanoğlu, Ç., & Pausas, J. (2018). A functional trait database for Mediterranean Basin plants. Scientific Data, 5, 180135. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.135
The months of the beginning and end of flowering across Europe are given. The data were compiled from Kaplan et al. 2019, French Flora database and Guarino et al. 2019. For each species, we provide a maximal flowering range across available sources.
Axmanová, I. (2022). Flowering period. – www.FloraVeg.EU.
Guarino, R., La Rosa, M. & Pignatti, S. (Eds) (2019). Flora d'Italia, volume 4. Bologna: Edagricole.
GreekFlora.gr. Available at https://www.greekflora.gr/ [accessed June 2020]
French Flora database (baseflor), project of Flore et végétation de la France et du Monde: CATMINAT. Available at http://philippe.julve.pagesperso-orange.fr/catminat.htm [accessed June 2020]
Kaplan Z., Danihelka J., Chrtek J. Jr., Kirschner J., Kubát K., Štěpánek J. & Štech M. (eds) (2019) Klíč ke květeně České republiky [Key to the flora of the Czech Republic]. Ed. 2. – Academia, Praha.
Ladouceur, E., Bonomi, C., Bruelheide, H., Klimešová, J., Burrascano, S., Poschlod, P., … Jiménez-Alfaro, B. (2019). The functional trait spectrum of European temperate grasslands. Journal of Vegetation Science, 30(5), 777–788. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12784
Săvulescu, T. (Ed.) (1952–1976). Flora Republicii Populare Române – Flora Republicii Socialiste România. Vols 1–13. București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Române, Academia Republicii Socialiste România.
Seed mass represent the mean weight of 1000 seeds in a dry state, measured in grams. The data were taken preferably from Kleyer et al. (2008), Hintze et al. (2013), García-Gutiérrez et al. (2018) and Seed Information Database (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew 2021) and complemented by additional sources such as national and regional floras. Each species is characterized by a mean value calculated across available datasets. Upon request, minimum, maximum and median values are also available.
Axmanová, I. (2022). Seed mass. – www.FloraVeg.EU.
García-Gutiérrez, T., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Fernández-Pascual, E., & Müller, J. V. (2018). Functional diversity and ecological requirements of alpine vegetation types in a biogeographical transition zone. Phytocoenologia, 77–89. https://doi.org/10.1127/phyto/2017/0224
Hintze, C., Heydel, F., Hoppe, C., Cunze, S., König, A., & Tackenberg, O. (2013). D3: The Dispersal and Diaspore Database – Baseline data and statistics on seed dispersal. Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution and Systematics, 15(3), 180–192. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ppees.2013.02.001
Kleyer, M., Bekker, R. M., Knevel, I. C., Bakker, J. P., Thompson, K., Sonnenschein, M., … Peco, B. (2008). The LEDA Traitbase: A database of life-history traits of the Northwest European flora. Journal of Ecology, 96(6), 1266–1274. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2008.01430.x
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. (2021). Seed Information Database (SID). Version 7.1. Available at: http://data.kew.org/sid/ [accessed May 2021]
Carnivorous plants attract, trap and kill their prey, mainly insects, small crustaceans and protozoans, and subsequently absorb the nutrients from the dead bodies. Carnivorous species occur in environments with extremely low availability of nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorus, e.g. mires. In contrast, they usually have enough light (open habitats) and high water table or precipitation levels (Fleischmann et al. 2017). Therefore, the carnivory improves the intake of nutrients essential for growth but sparse in the environment, while the main source of energy for these plants is photosynthesis (Fleischmann et al. 2017).
Although there is a variety of morphological structures and trapping mechanisms, all the traps evolved as more or less complicated modifications of leaves with glandulous hairs (Hedrich & Fukushima 2021). Examples of active-hunting carnivorous plants include Aldrovanda with snap traps and Utricularia with suction traps. Typical representatives of the passive-trapping species can be found in the genera Drosera, Drosophyllum and Pinguicula, which have specific types of adhesive leaves. Another passive mechanism is the pitfall trap of Sarracenia (Hedrich & Fukushima 2021). Some species can combine adhesive traps with active movement of either glands or parts of the leaves (e.g. some species of Drosera).
The carnivory evolved independently in relatively distant lineages of angiosperms. There are carnivorous families within the orders Poales, Oxalidales, Caryophyllales, Ericales and Lamiales (Hedrich & Fukushima 2021). This convergent evolution of carnivory was possible because the traits associated with carnivorous syndrome from trap development through prey digestion to nutrient absorption are modifications of structures found also in non-carnivorous ancestors, where these originally served as defending mechanisms (Hedrich & Fukushima 2021).
In Europe, there are only three native carnivorous families, namely Droseraceae, Drosophyllaceae (order Caryophyllales), and Lentibulariaceae (Lamiales). Carnivorous plants have however often been planted and imported to Europe. Some of these non-native carnivorous species introduced to Europe can also survive in natural habitats and establish vital populations. For example, the species of Sarracenia (Sarraceniaceae, Ericales), native to North America, have nowadays scattered secondary occurrences across western and northwestern Europe.
Axmanová, I. (2023): Carnivory. – www.FloraVeg.eu.
Fleischmann, A., Schlauer, J., Smith, S. A., & Givnish, T. J. (2017). Evolution of carnivory in angiosperms. In Ellison, A. & Adamec, L. (Eds.), Carnivorous Plants: Physiology, ecology, and evolution (p. 22–41). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198779841.003.0003
Hedrich, R., & Fukushima, K. (2021). On the Origin of Carnivory: Molecular Physiology and Evolution of Plants on an Animal Diet. Annual Review of Plant Biology, 72(1), 133–153. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-arplant-080620-010429
Origin in Europe was assessed according to the geographic origin of the species. Native taxa are plants that are native to at least part of Europe, although some of them are nowadays alien in other European regions. Species introduced intentionally or unintentionally by humans to Europe from other continents are alien (non-native) plants. We distinguished two categories of alien plants according to their residence time. Archaeophytes are plants introduced to Europe until the Middle Ages, while neophytes are plants introduced after 1500 AD. Data were compiled from Pyšek et al. (2012), GloNAF database (van Kleunen et al 2019), Verloove (2019), Euro+Med database (2021), POWO database (POWO 2021), complemented by additional sources such as national and regional floras.
Axmanová, I. (2022). Origin in Europe. – www.FloraVeg.EU.
van Kleunen, M., Pyšek, P., Dawson, W., Essl, F., Kreft, H., Pergl, J. et al. (2019). The Global Naturalized Alien Floras (GloNAF) database. Ecology, 100(1):e02542. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.2542
Euro+Med (2021). Euro+Med PlantBase – the information resource for Euro-Mediterranean plant diversity. Available at http://ww2.bgbm.org/EuroPlusMed/query.asp [accessed May 2021]
POWO (2021). Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Available at http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/ [accessed May 2021]
Pyšek P., Danihelka J., Sádlo J., Chrtek J. Jr., Chytrý M., … Tichý L. (2012) Catalogue of alien plants of the Czech Republic (2nd edition): checklist update, taxonomic diversity and invasion patterns. Preslia 84(2), 155–255.
Verloove, F. (2019). Manual of the Alien Plants of Belgium. Available at http://alienplantsbelgium.be/ [accessed May 2019]
Categories of substrate humidity do not reflect fine differences of various habitats, on the contrary, they are defined very broadly. These categories can be derived also from the ordinal scale for moisture (1-12) defined by Ellenberg et al. (1991). Plants adapted to growing in dry soils, or soils that frequently dry out, are assigned to a category Dry, which corresponds to the first four degrees of the Ellenberg scale (1-4). Accordingly, plants of mesic habitats are assigned to the category Mesic (5 and 6 of the Ellenberg scale), plants of wet to soaked, poorly aerated soils are in the category Wet (7-9), and finally, aquatic plants are assigned to the category Water (10-12). If available, we used Ellenberg-type indicator values aggregated to broader categories, in other cases, categories were assigned according to the knowledge of local experts.
Data were compiled from several sources available across Europe, namely the indicator-value datasets for Great Britain (Hill et al. 2000), Cantabrian Range in Spain (Jiménez-Alfaro et al. 2021), France (Julve 2015), Germany (Ellenberg et al. 2001, taken from Ellenberg & Leuschner 2010), Switzerland (Landolt et al. 2010), Austria (Karrer 1992), Czech Republic (Chytrý et al. 2018), Hungary (Borhidi 1995), Ukraine (Didukh 2011), Italy (Guarino & La Rosa 2019, with additional corrections by R. Guarino), Southern Aegean region of Greece (Böhling et al. 2002) and European mires (Hájek et al. 2020).
Axmanová, I. (2022). Substrate humidity relationship. – www.FloraVeg.EU.
Böhling, N., Greuter, W. & Raus, T. (2002). Zeigerwerte der Gefäßpflanzen der Südägäis (Griechenland) [Indicator values of the vascular plants in the Southern Aegean (Greece)]. Braun-Blanquetia, 32, 1–108.
Borhidi, A. (1995). Social behaviour types, the naturalness and relative ecological indicator values of the higher plants in the Hungarian flora. Acta Botanica Hungarica, 39, 97–181.
Chytrý, M., Tichý, L., Dřevojan, P., Sádlo, J. & Zelený, D. (2018). Ellenberg-type indicator values for the Czech flora. Preslia, 90, 83–103.
Didukh Ya.P. (2011). The ecological scales for the species of Ukrainian flora and their use in synphytoindication. Kyiv: Phytosociocentre.
Ellenberg, H., Weber, H. E., Düll, R., Wirth, V., Werner, W. & Paulißen, D. (1991). Zeigerwerte von Pflanzen in Mitteleuropa. Scripta Geobotanica, 18, 1–248.
Ellenberg, H. & Leuschner, C. (2010). Zeigerwerte der Pflanzen Mitteleuropas. In: Ellenberg H. & Leuschner, C., Vegetation Mitteleuropas mit den Alpen. Stuttgart: Verlag Eugen Ulmer.
French Flora database (baseflor), project of Flore et végétation de la France et du Monde: CATMINAT. Available at http://philippe.julve.pagesperso-orange.fr/catminat.htm [accessed June 2020]
Guarino, R., La Rosa, M. & Pignatti, S. (Eds) (2019). Flora d'Italia, volume 4. Bologna: Edagricole.
Hill, M.O., Roy, D.B., Mountford, J.O., & Bunce, R.G.H. (2000). Extending Ellenberg’s indicator values to a new area: an algorithmic approach. Journal of Applied Ecology, 37, 3–15.
Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Carlón, L., Fernández-Pascual, E., Acedo, C., Alfaro-Saiz, E., Alonso Redondo, R., … Vázquez, V. M. (2021). Checklist of the vascular plants of the Cantabrian mountains. Mediterranean Botany, 42, e74570.
Karrer, G. (1992). Österreichische Waldboden-Zustandsinventur. Teil VII: Vegetationsökologische Analysen. Mitteilungen der forstlichen Bundesversuchsanstalt Wien, 168, 193-242.
Landolt, E., Bäumler, B., Erhardt, A., Hegg, O., Klötzli, F., Lämmler, W., … Wohlgemuth, T. (2010). Flora indicativa – Ökologische Zeigerwerte und biologische Kennzeichen zur Flora der Schweiz und der Alpen. Bern: Haupt Verlag.
Categories of substrate reaction do not reflect fine differences of various habitats, on the contrary, they are defined very broadly. These categories can be derived also from the ordinal scale for reaction (1-9) defined by Ellenberg et al. (1991). Plants adapted to growing in very acidic soils are assigned to a category Acidic, which corresponds to the first four degrees of the Ellenberg scale (1-4). Accordingly, plants of intermediate habitats are assigned to the category Slightly acidic (5 and 6 of the Ellenberg scale), plants of calcium-rich substrates are in the category Alkaline (7-9). If available, we used Ellenberg-type indicator values aggregated to broader categories, in other cases, categories were assigned according to the knowledge of local experts.
Data were compiled from several sources available across Europe, namely the indicator-value datasets for Great Britain (Hill et al. 2000), Cantabrian Range in Spain (Jiménez-Alfaro et al. 2021), France (Julve 2015), Germany (Ellenberg et al. 2001, taken from Ellenberg & Leuschner 2010), Switzerland (Landolt et al. 2010), Austria (Karrer 1992), Czech Republic (Chytrý et al. 2018), Hungary (Borhidi 1995), Ukraine (Didukh 2011), Italy (Guarino & La Rosa 2019, with additional corrections by R. Guarino), Southern Aegean region of Greece (Böhling et al. 2002).
Axmanová, I. (2022). Substrate reaction relationship. – www.FloraVeg.EU.
Böhling, N., Greuter, W. & Raus, T. (2002). Zeigerwerte der Gefäßpflanzen der Südägäis (Griechenland) [Indicator values of the vascular plants in the Southern Aegean (Greece)]. Braun-Blanquetia, 32, 1–108.
Borhidi, A. (1995). Social behaviour types, the naturalness and relative ecological indicator values of the higher plants in the Hungarian flora. Acta Botanica Hungarica, 39, 97–181.
Chytrý, M., Tichý, L., Dřevojan, P., Sádlo, J. & Zelený, D. (2018). Ellenberg-type indicator values for the Czech flora. Preslia, 90, 83–103.
Didukh Ya.P. (2011). The ecological scales for the species of Ukrainian flora and their use in synphytoindication. Kyiv: Phytosociocentre.
Ellenberg, H., Weber, H. E., Düll, R., Wirth, V., Werner, W. & Paulißen, D. (1991). Zeigerwerte von Pflanzen in Mitteleuropa. Scripta Geobotanica, 18, 1–248.
Ellenberg, H. & Leuschner, C. (2010). Zeigerwerte der Pflanzen Mitteleuropas. In: Ellenberg H. & Leuschner, C., Vegetation Mitteleuropas mit den Alpen. Stuttgart: Verlag Eugen Ulmer.
French Flora database (baseflor), project of Flore et végétation de la France et du Monde: CATMINAT. Available at http://philippe.julve.pagesperso-orange.fr/catminat.htm [accessed June 2020]
Guarino, R., La Rosa, M. & Pignatti, S. (Eds) (2019). Flora d'Italia, volume 4. Bologna: Edagricole.
Hájek, M., Dítě, D., Horsáková, V., Mikulášková, E., Peterka, T., Navrátilová, J., … Horsák, M. (2020). Towards the pan-European bioindication system: Assessing and testing updated hydrological indicator values for vascular plants and bryophytes in mires. Ecological Indicators, 116, 106527.
Hill, M.O., Roy, D.B., Mountford, J.O., & Bunce, R.G.H. (2000). Extending Ellenberg’s indicator values to a new area: an algorithmic approach. Journal of Applied Ecology, 37, 3–15.
Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Carlón, L., Fernández-Pascual, E., Acedo, C., Alfaro-Saiz, E., Alonso Redondo, R., … Vázquez, V. M. (2021). Checklist of the vascular plants of the Cantabrian mountains. Mediterranean Botany, 42, e74570.
Karrer, G. (1992). Österreichische Waldboden-Zustandsinventur. Teil VII: Vegetationsökologische Analysen. Mitteilungen der forstlichen Bundesversuchsanstalt Wien, 168, 193-242.
Landolt, E., Bäumler, B., Erhardt, A., Hegg, O., Klötzli, F., Lämmler, W., … Wohlgemuth, T. (2010). Flora indicativa – Ökologische Zeigerwerte und biologische Kennzeichen zur Flora der Schweiz und der Alpen. Bern: Haupt Verlag.
Categories of nutrient relationship do not reflect fine differences of various habitats, on the contrary, they are defined very broadly. These categories can be derived also from the ordinal scale for reaction (1-9) defined by Ellenberg et al. (1991). Plants adapted to growing in extremely nutrient-poor soils are assigned to a category Dystrophic, which corresponds to the first degree of the Ellenberg scale (1), or if at least some nutrients are available to Oligotrophic category (2-3). Plants of intermediate habitats are assigned to the category Mesotrophic (4, 5), while plants of nutrient-rich substrates are in the category Eutrophic (6-8), or even Hypertrophic (9 degree at the Ellenberg scale). If available, we used Ellenberg-type indicator values aggregated to broader categories, in other cases, categories were assigned according to the knowledge of local experts.
Data were compiled from several sources available across Europe, namely the indicator-value datasets for Great Britain (Hill et al. 2000), Cantabrian Range in Spain (Jiménez-Alfaro et al. 2021), France (Julve 2015), Germany (Ellenberg et al. 2001, taken from Ellenberg & Leuschner 2010), Switzerland (Landolt et al. 2010), Austria (Karrer 1992), Czech Republic (Chytrý et al. 2018), Hungary (Borhidi 1995), Ukraine (Didukh 2011), Italy (Guarino & La Rosa 2019, with additional corrections by R. Guarino), Southern Aegean region of Greece (Böhling et al. 2002).
Axmanová, I. (2022). Nutrient relationship. – www.FloraVeg.EU.
Böhling, N., Greuter, W. & Raus, T. (2002). Zeigerwerte der Gefäßpflanzen der Südägäis (Griechenland) [Indicator values of the vascular plants in the Southern Aegean (Greece)]. Braun-Blanquetia, 32, 1–108.
Borhidi, A. (1995). Social behaviour types, the naturalness and relative ecological indicator values of the higher plants in the Hungarian flora. Acta Botanica Hungarica, 39, 97–181.
Chytrý, M., Tichý, L., Dřevojan, P., Sádlo, J. & Zelený, D. (2018). Ellenberg-type indicator values for the Czech flora. Preslia, 90, 83–103.
Didukh Ya.P. (2011). The ecological scales for the species of Ukrainian flora and their use in synphytoindication. Kyiv: Phytosociocentre.
Ellenberg, H., Weber, H. E., Düll, R., Wirth, V., Werner, W. & Paulißen, D. (1991). Zeigerwerte von Pflanzen in Mitteleuropa. Scripta Geobotanica, 18, 1–248.
Ellenberg, H. & Leuschner, C. (2010). Zeigerwerte der Pflanzen Mitteleuropas. In: Ellenberg H. & Leuschner, C., Vegetation Mitteleuropas mit den Alpen. Stuttgart: Verlag Eugen Ulmer.
French Flora database (baseflor), project of Flore et végétation de la France et du Monde: CATMINAT. Available at http://philippe.julve.pagesperso-orange.fr/catminat.htm [accessed June 2020]
Guarino, R., La Rosa, M. & Pignatti, S. (Eds) (2019). Flora d'Italia, volume 4. Bologna: Edagricole.
Hájek, M., Dítě, D., Horsáková, V., Mikulášková, E., Peterka, T., Navrátilová, J., … Horsák, M. (2020). Towards the pan-European bioindication system: Assessing and testing updated hydrological indicator values for vascular plants and bryophytes in mires. Ecological Indicators, 116, 106527.
Hill, M.O., Roy, D.B., Mountford, J.O., & Bunce, R.G.H. (2000). Extending Ellenberg’s indicator values to a new area: an algorithmic approach. Journal of Applied Ecology, 37, 3–15.
Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Carlón, L., Fernández-Pascual, E., Acedo, C., Alfaro-Saiz, E., Alonso Redondo, R., … Vázquez, V. M. (2021). Checklist of the vascular plants of the Cantabrian mountains. Mediterranean Botany, 42, e74570.
Karrer, G. (1992). Österreichische Waldboden-Zustandsinventur. Teil VII: Vegetationsökologische Analysen. Mitteilungen der forstlichen Bundesversuchsanstalt Wien, 168, 193-242.
Landolt, E., Bäumler, B., Erhardt, A., Hegg, O., Klötzli, F., Lämmler, W., … Wohlgemuth, T. (2010). Flora indicativa – Ökologische Zeigerwerte und biologische Kennzeichen zur Flora der Schweiz und der Alpen. Bern: Haupt Verlag.
Categories of salinity do not reflect fine differences of various habitats, on the contrary, they are defined very broadly. These categories can be derived also from the ordinal scale for reaction (0-9) defined by Ellenberg et al. (1991). Plants adapted to growing in soils without salt content are assigned to a category Non-saline, which corresponds to the first degree of the Ellenberg scale (0) and it is the prevailing category. Plants of slightly saline habitats are assigned to the category Slightly saline or brackish (1-4 of the Ellenberg scale), while plants of salt-rich substrates are in the category Saline (5-9). If available, we used Ellenberg-type indicator values aggregated to broader categories, in other cases, categories were assigned according to the knowledge of local experts.
Data were compiled from several sources available across Europe, namely the indicator-value datasets for Great Britain (Hill et al. 2000), France (Julve 2015), Germany (Ellenberg et al. 2001, taken from Ellenberg & Leuschner 2010), Switzerland (Landolt et al. 2010), Austria (Karrer 1992), Czech Republic (Chytrý et al. 2018), Hungary (Borhidi 1995), Ukraine (Didukh 2011), Italy (Guarino & La Rosa 2019, with additional corrections by R. Guarino), Southern Aegean region of Greece (Böhling et al. 2002).
Axmanová, I. (2022). Salinity relationship. – www.FloraVeg.EU.
Böhling, N., Greuter, W. & Raus, T. (2002). Zeigerwerte der Gefäßpflanzen der Südägäis (Griechenland) [Indicator values of the vascular plants in the Southern Aegean (Greece)]. Braun-Blanquetia, 32, 1–108.
Borhidi, A. (1995). Social behaviour types, the naturalness and relative ecological indicator values of the higher plants in the Hungarian flora. Acta Botanica Hungarica, 39, 97–181.
Chytrý, M., Tichý, L., Dřevojan, P., Sádlo, J. & Zelený, D. (2018). Ellenberg-type indicator values for the Czech flora. Preslia, 90, 83–103.
Didukh Ya.P. (2011). The ecological scales for the species of Ukrainian flora and their use in synphytoindication. Kyiv: Phytosociocentre.
Ellenberg, H., Weber, H. E., Düll, R., Wirth, V., Werner, W. & Paulißen, D. (1991). Zeigerwerte von Pflanzen in Mitteleuropa. Scripta Geobotanica, 18, 1–248.
Ellenberg, H. & Leuschner, C. (2010). Zeigerwerte der Pflanzen Mitteleuropas. In: Ellenberg H. & Leuschner, C., Vegetation Mitteleuropas mit den Alpen. Stuttgart: Verlag Eugen Ulmer.
French Flora database (baseflor), project of Flore et végétation de la France et du Monde: CATMINAT. Available at http://philippe.julve.pagesperso-orange.fr/catminat.htm [accessed June 2020]
Guarino, R., La Rosa, M. & Pignatti, S. (Eds) (2019). Flora d'Italia, volume 4. Bologna: Edagricole.
Hájek, M., Dítě, D., Horsáková, V., Mikulášková, E., Peterka, T., Navrátilová, J., … Horsák, M. (2020). Towards the pan-European bioindication system: Assessing and testing updated hydrological indicator values for vascular plants and bryophytes in mires. Ecological Indicators, 116, 106527.
Hill, M.O., Roy, D.B., Mountford, J.O., & Bunce, R.G.H. (2000). Extending Ellenberg’s indicator values to a new area: an algorithmic approach. Journal of Applied Ecology, 37, 3–15.
Karrer, G. (1992). Österreichische Waldboden-Zustandsinventur. Teil VII: Vegetationsökologische Analysen. Mitteilungen der forstlichen Bundesversuchsanstalt Wien, 168, 193-242.
Landolt, E., Bäumler, B., Erhardt, A., Hegg, O., Klötzli, F., Lämmler, W., … Wohlgemuth, T. (2010). Flora indicativa – Ökologische Zeigerwerte und biologische Kennzeichen zur Flora der Schweiz und der Alpen. Bern: Haupt Verlag.
Diagnostic species are characterized by a concentration of their occurrence in the stands belonging to the target habitat type while being rare or absent in other habitat types. For the habitat types of the EUNIS classification (Chytrý et al. 2020), these species were determined based on the calculation of fidelity of each species to a group of vegetation plots representing the target habitat type in a geographically and ecologically stratified selection of plots from the European Vegetation Archive (Chytrý et al. 2016). Fidelity was calculated using the phi coefficient of association (Sokal & Rohlf, 1995; Chytrý et al., 2002) standardized as if each habitat was represented by the same number of plots (Tichý & Chytrý, 2006). The species with a value of phi greater than 0.15 for a particular habitat were considered as diagnostic for this habitat. The statistical significance of the species–habitat association was tested using Fisher's exact test (Sokal & Rohlf, 1995), and if not significant at p < 0.05, the species was excluded from the list of diagnostic species (Tichý & Chytrý, 2006).
Chytrý, M., Tichý, L., Hennekens, S. M., Knollová, I., Janssen, J. A. M., Rodwell, J. S., … Schaminée, J. H. J. (2020). EUNIS Habitat Classification: expert system, characteristic species combinations and distribution maps of European habitats. Applied Vegetation Science, 23(4), 648–675. https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12519 – Version 2025-10-03: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16895007
Chytrý, M., Tichý, L., Holt, J., & Botta-Dukát, Z. (2002). Determination of diagnostic species with statistical fidelity measures. Journal of Vegetation Science, 13(1), 79–90. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-1103.2002.tb02025.x
Chytrý, M., Hennekens, S. M., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Knollová, I., Dengler, J., Jansen, F., … Yamalov, S. (2016). European Vegetation Archive (EVA): an integrated database of European vegetation plots. Applied Vegetation Science, 19(1), 173–180. https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12191
Sokal, R. R., & Rohlf, F. J. (1995). Biometry, 3rd edition. New York, NY: Freeman.
Tichý, L., & Chytrý, M. (2006). Statistical determination of diagnostic species for site groups of unequal size. Journal of Vegetation Science, 17(6), 809–818. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1654-1103.2006.tb02504.x
Constant species are characterized by frequent occurrences in stands belonging to the target vegetation unit, but unlike diagnostic species, they can also commonly occur in other vegetation units. They were determined for the habitat types of the EUNIS classification (Chytrý et al. 2020) based on the calculation of the percentage frequency (constancy) of each species in a group of vegetation plots representing the target habitat type in a geographically and ecologically stratified selection of plots of all habitat types extracted from the European Vegetation Archive (Chytrý et al. 2016). The species with an occurrence frequency in the habitat type higher than 10% were considered as constant taxa.
Chytrý, M., Tichý, L., Hennekens, S. M., Knollová, I., Janssen, J. A. M., Rodwell, J. S., … Schaminée, J. H. J. (2020). EUNIS Habitat Classification: expert system, characteristic species combinations and distribution maps of European habitats. Applied Vegetation Science, 23(4), 648–675. https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12519 – Version 2025-10-03: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16895007
Chytrý M., Hennekens S.M., Jiménez-Alfaro B., Knollová I., Dengler J., Jansen F., … Yamalov S. (2016). European Vegetation Archive (EVA): an integrated database of European vegetation plots. Applied Vegetation Science, 19(1), 173–180. https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12191
Species association to broadly defined habitats is based on species occurrences reported for finer units, either vegetation types or habitats. We compiled available data from several sources, Sádlo et al. (2007), Mucina et al. (2016), Guarino et al. (2019). Final list of habitats include 18 broad habitats.
Axmanová, I. (2022). Broad habitat. – www.FloraVeg.EU.
Guarino, R., La Rosa, M. & Pignatti, S. (Eds) (2019). Flora d'Italia, volume 4. Bologna: Edagricole.
Mucina, L., Bültmann, H., Dierßen, K., Theurillat, J.-P., Raus, T., Čarni, A., … Tichý L. (2016). Vegetation of Europe: Hierarchical floristic classification system of vascular plant, bryophyte, lichen, and algal communities. Applied Vegetation Science, 19(Suppl. 1), 3–264. https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12257
Sádlo, J., Chytrý, M. & Pyšek, P. (2007). Regional species pools of vascular plants in habitats of the Czech Republic. Preslia, 79, 303–321.
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