Kaszab Zoltán (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 63. (Budapest 1971)
Fekete, G. ; Szujkó-Lacza, J.: A survey of the plant life-form systems and the respective research approaches III. Rankiaer's life-form conception. The application of life-forms in the characterization of phytoclimate and in vegetation analysis
ANNALES HISTORICO-NATURALES MUSEI NATIONALIS HUNGARICI Tomus 63. PARS BOTANICA 1971. A Survey of the Plant Life-form Systems and the Respective Research Approaches III. Itaunkiaer's life-form conception. The application of life-forms in the characterization of phytoclimatc and in vegetation analysis By G. FEKETE and J. SZUJKÓ-LACZA, Budapest I. Introduction There is no doubt that of all the life-form conceptions heretofore concieved, RAUNKIAER'S is the most widely spread and in general use even today. We propose therefore to examine in the followings the essence of RAUNKIAER'S lifeform concept and how it became (and may become) a useful tool in phytogeography and the investigation of phytocoenoses. RAUNKIAER expounded his concept of the plant life-forms in 1905, and in more details in 1907 (the date of publication of his first biological type system —life-form system —in 1904). He contends that the life-forms are the results of adaptation to the environment in the course of evolution of the plant kingdom (a confessedly Lamarckian standpoint). Concerning the innumerable affective factors of the environment, he establishes that the adaptation to heat and water are essential, since this can be measured, by uniform criteria, in the most diverse systematical groups. The above factors delimit also the spreading of the plant (phytogeographical importance!), yet not in the optimum but in the pessimum (LIEBIG'S minimum principle). RAUNKIAER (1907) cast this as follows: "If the climate throughout the year in every region resembled the climate of the most favourable season of region, then a great number of plants would have a much wider distribution than they have at present. It is especially the unfavourable season which limits their distribution". The criterion of life-forms is: the position and protection of the renovating bud, the most sensitive tissue system of the plant. By this, RAUNKIAER grasped a structural and also an essential feature of the plant species. This recognition is a true merit of its author even if his predecessors (e.g. DRUDE, WARMING) have already called attention, besides a number of other points of view, to the importance of the renewing buds. Contrarily to his forerunners, RAUNKIAER sees it correctly that "We are not in a position to determine the ideal life form of plants, which would be the sum of all their adaptation to their environment. We must content ourselves with characterizing life forms by using one essential side of adaptation" (1908). According to this platform, one species belongs to only one life-form (and in some cases only between certain climatic limits) in classification, in contrast to the parallel life-form systems (Du RIETZ, 1931), or to views (SEVERTSOV, 1951; GOLUBIEV, 1968) in which the species itself is the life-form owing to its ecological
