A critique for phytosociology

Phytosociology is a subdiscipline of plant ecology that describes the co-occurrence of plant species in communities. Gradient analysis and classification are its complementary tools. Various peculiarities and anachronisms of Central European phytosociology conceal its similarity with Anglo-American approaches. Phytosociology deserves to be updated as a part of modem vegetation science that can build on a vast heritage of high-quality data and the tools to store and analyse them in ways that go beyond syntaxonomy. By providing a context to more specialized pure and applied research, it has a crucial role to play in understanding community structure, ecosystem functioning and biological evolution.