Exerpted from MDIA's book:Plants of the East Bay Parks
by Glenn Keator, Ph. D.

Plant "communities" are useful constructs for describing the wild environments around us; defining a set of community types makes the every-varying world seem a little more manageable and understandable. Although scientists continue to argue over the varagirs of how communities are defined, will use simple general categories.

Communities each have personalities of their own determined by their place and time, and the personalities in turn determine what specific plants and animals you find there. The dominant plants (whether they be shrubs, grasses, wildflowers, or trees) give the community its unique character and name. The communities all into these categories

Grasslands - open places, without woody plants. Grasslands may represent natural places as well as disturbed, unnatural habitats, such as pastures and grazed areas. Long called hog wallows as well as other degrading names, vernal pools are specialized habitats within our grasslands. Wherever clay soils form small depressions underlain by cementlike hardpans, vernal pools appear.

Shrublands. Most of our shrublands are called chaparral, but that name actually covers several kinds of shrublands. Generally speaking, chaparral is typical of our hottest, steepest, rockiest slopes -- often south-facing -- where summer sun is strong and winter rains runn off (rather than being retained as they are on gentle slopes and flats). Here shrubs occur in dense stands, overshadowing all else. The Spanish term "chaparral" -- grove of scrub oaks -- has been adapted for many of our shrublands. Also called coastal scrub or coastal sage scrub, soft chaparral is dominated by small shrubs with "soft leaves" (leaves with a pliable, thin texture). Hard chaparral replaces soft chaparral in hotter, drier inland areas, usually on steep, rocky slopes. (Shrubs favor the summer head of south-facing slopes).

Wooded Places. Trees dominate all such places. There are two general categories: forests (where tree canopies overlap, creating dense shade) and woodlands (where trees are scattered with openings between). Riparian woodland is found only along permanent streams and rivers, where the water table remains at or just below the surface all year. Probably no more characteristic treelands occur in our part of California than oak woodlands, for the typify large areas of low foothills in both the Coast Ranges and Sierra Nevada. Where oak canopies overlap, conditions favor a variety of other usually evergreen trees: California bay laurel, madrone, Douglas fir, tanbark oak, and California nutmeg. Redwood forests are represented in our area by isolated fragments found in the deepest, most protected canyon bottoms within the reach of summer fogs.

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