International Institute of Tropical Forestry

Title: Wildland Shrubs of the United States and its Territories: Thamnic Descriptions

Author: Francis, John K.; [Editor]

Date: 2000

Source: General Technical Report IITF-WB-1 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry and Shrub Sciences Laboratory

Description: According to the dictionary (Merriam-Webster Inc 1984), the word "shrub" came from the Old English scrybb wood, which is akin to the Norwegian skrubbebaer that means a dwarf hardwood species. The implication seems to be that a shrub is a dwarf tree. Although not far from the current usage of the word, the designation of this life form is driven by the need for a category between trees and herbs. If a tree is "a woody perennial plant, typically large and with a single well-defined stem carrying a more or less definite crown" (Ford-Robertson 1971), then a shrub must necessarily be smaller. Most definitions also require that a shrub should have more than one main stem caused by branching below or above the ground level (Allaby 1994, Viereck and Little 1972). Other frequent qualifications include the need for the plant to be perennial and to be lignified (woody), at least in some of its parts (Allaby 1994, Ford-Robertson 1971, Orshan 1989). Shrubs are distinguished from herbs in that they do not develop persistent woody tissue above ground (Ford-Robertson 1971).

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Citation

Francis, John K.; [Editor]  2000.  Wildland Shrubs of the United States and its Territories: Thamnic Descriptions.   General Technical Report IITF-WB-1 U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry and Shrub Sciences Laboratory .