Toward a framework of integrated knowledge of terrestrial vegetationsystem: The role of databases of phytosociological releves

This article discusses the date of the centenary of modern phytosociology. ‘‘Modern phytosociology is the science of plant communities, also known as syntaxons. This science is organized according to a hierarchy based on an elementary unit: the association (Ge´hu & Rivas-Martinez 1981)’’. Historically, the word ‘‘phytosociology’’ was invented in 1896 by Paczoski (Poland) in replacement of ‘‘florology’’. Picked up in 1898 by Kryloff (Russia), it then related to the former Russian–Polish concept of phytosociology as the study of social interactions within plant formations, but in no way referred to plant associations. The first accurate definition of plant association is given in 1910, during the International Congress of Botany in Brussels, by rapporteurs Charles Flahault and Carl Schro¨ ter. ‘‘An association is a plant community of specific floristic composition with uniform physiognomy and consistent ecological growth conditions’’. This historical definition is issued along with 10 remarks, which clearly assimilate plant associations – ‘‘a fundamental element of synecology’’, according to the rapporteurs themselves – to microhabitats in their current European meaning.