I have heard several people recently talking about the new (I think) concept of 'axiophytes'.
The most concise definition I have seen is that axiophytes are "Plants indicative of habitats that need to be conserved." There is a web page put up by the Botanical Society of the British Isles devoted to the topic here: http://www.bsbi.org.uk/html/axiophytes.html And another useful one here: http://www.bsbi.org.uk/News103p57.pdf I wonder if our Sussex botanists are drawing up, or thinking of drawing up, a list for our area as it seems like a good system of establishing more finely tuned conservation priorities. I wonder too if a similar system exists for animals. The last syllable of 'axiophytes' means 'plants' so, if a word does not exist already one would have to be coined - I rather like 'axiofauns', but I think this would give serious taxonomists a heart attack. Whatever, I do think this axiowhatnot could become a very useful conservation tool. Patrick Roper _______________________________________________ Adastra mailing list Adastra@lists.sxbrc.org.uk http://lists.sxbrc.org.uk/adastra http://lists.sxbrc.org.uk/adastra-archives
