Native plant richness
Native plant richness refers to the number of different plant species in an area of vegetation. Regular monitoring involves identifying the plant species and plant forms within a monitoring area over time, and can include counting the number of plants for abundance and relative abundance.
Identifying and recording the native plant species in an area tells you about the presence or absence of plant species. Recording the number of each species—its abundance—will provide a clearer picture of what change is happening to the area of vegetation.
Monitoring native plant richness will show you whether plant diversity on your property is increasing or decreasing. To manage the vegetation on your property for the long term, it is important not only to know how much vegetation you have and how healthy it is, but also to know how rich in plant species the vegetation is and how this richness may change as a result of your management actions and other influences. Monitoring native plant richness will inform you on:
- what native plant species exist in a given area
- how the species present are changing over time and throughout seasons (if measured seasonally)
- whether the relative dominance of plant species and forms within the area are changing over time
- impacts of your management actions on the plant species within the area you are monitoring
- what is required to improve or maintain biodiversity on your property.
Download the following files for more information:
- Land Manager’s Monitoring Guide—Native plant richness indicator (PDF, 327K)*
- Datasheet templates plus example charts (PDF, 53K)*
- Datasheet templates plus example charts (Excel, 860K)‡
* Requires Adobe Reader
‡ Requires Microsoft Office files viewer
Last updated 7 September 2010