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Shrublands are those vegetation types dominated by woody plants known as shrubs (they have multi-stems coming from their root crowns: several basal stems vs. a single bole or trunk) and arbitrarily defined by the Society of American Foresters and the Society for Range Management as being under 4 to 5 meters in height. An old and still descriptively useful term for shrublands is scrub or scrublands. In North America there are four basic categories of scrub:
1.) Deserts or Desert Scrub – arid scrub.Deserts as used in this context are defined by aridity of climate, and not by xeric environments due to edaphic or other features.As discussed below, deserts can be hot deserts, cold deserts, or intermediate (composite deserts).
2.) Semi-arid scrub – often known generically as chaparral, the Spanish term for brush.These can be ecotonal to mountain forest or occur more as shrub savannas.
3.) Boreal, tundra formations– These are often alpine, dwarf life- forms of quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), willow (Salix species), alder (Alnus species), and members of the heath family (Ericaceae) like azalea and rose bay (Rhodendron) and huckleberry and whortleberry(Vaccinium) species.
4.) Riparian Scrub - These are plant communities that are shrubs (vs. herbaceous plants and trees) growing in the riparian zone along watercourses (rivers, creeks, etc.). Most commonly these are willow, alder, poplar, and miscellaneous species (though, again, of shrub and not tree forms).
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