Plant Succession in the Larrea‐Flourensia Climax

The Larrea-Flourensia Desert Scrub is a widespread and relatively homogeneous community common to the central continental areas of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Its structure, ecological adaptations and responses, and its significance in the classification of llant communities are vastly different from those of other North American communities and particularly those of the East. The significance in classification has largely been overlooked. The present paper is intended to present the problem in the light of investigations carried out on a selected site in western Texas. Study was begun in 1931 while the author was engaged in other botanical work in that area, was continued in 1932 and 1933, and was reviewed in 1939. The successively denuded and covered Tornilla Clay beds were chosen for study because of their extremely unfavorable conditions for plant growth. Depletion of surface soil overlying them is disturbance in high degree.