British plant communities is the first systematic and comprehensive account of natural vegetation types of great britain. it covers all natural, semi-natural and major artificial habitats in great britain (excluding northern ireland), representing the fruits of fifteen years research by leading plant ecologists. over 250 plant communities are described in the five volumes, with summaries of their vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens. there are full details in the text of the composition and structure of the vegetation, its relationships to habitat factors and its occurence in characteristic spatial patterns and successions. numerous maps show the distribution of the communities through britain and all the vegetation types are related to their closest equivalents in mainland europe. for each major group of communities an introduction outlines the range of floristic variation and relates it to important environmental influences. a key provides the reader with a means of identifying vegetation types encountered in the field. there are indices to the communities and to their existing synonyms, and to all the plant species encountered in the survey. an extensive bibliography gives full details of the numerous literature references cited. british plant communities breaks new ground in wedding traditional continental phytosociology with the deep concern in britain to understand how vegetation works. it is intended as a working tool, offering a reliable framework for a wide variety of teaching, research, and management activities in ecology, conservation, and land use planning.