Is your habitat usually browsed?

How can you tell whether the habitat was browsed, say by mammals or moas, and why this matters?
Spines are modifed leaves. Prickles are modifed stem epidermis (skin). Thorns are modifed branches. Divaricate means "spreading at a wide angle" so divaricating growth form looks rather like chicken wire. It is thought to be a modification for grazing by the extinct moas - the flightless birds of New Zealand.
Features holly (Ilex aquifolium), dog rose (Rosa canina), blackthorn (Prunus spinosa) (all brought into the garden) and the New Zealand shrub Pittosporum anomalum. Filmed at Cambridge University's Botanic Gardens.
Thanks to the director, Beverley Glover, for permission to film and Caty Cooke for arranging access.

[@slipperyorca8092]

short and sweet, thanks for the info

[@Heroesflorian]

Very interesting!