With something as complex and variable as vegetation, no key can pretend to offer an infallible short cut to diagnosis. The following should thus be seen as simply a crude guide to identifying the types of vegetation found on shingle, strandline and sand-dunes and must always be used in conjunction with the data tables and community descriptions. It relies on floristic (and, to a lesser extent, physiognomic) features of the vegetation and demands a knowledge of the British vascular flora and some bryophytes and lichens. It does not make primary use of any habitat features, though these may provide a valuable confirmation of a diagnosis.

Because the major distinctions between the vegetation types in the classification are based on inter-stand frequency, the key works best when sufficient samples of similar composition are available to construct a constancy table. It is the frequency values in this (and, in some cases, the ranges of abundance) which are then subject to interrogation with the key.

Samples should always be taken from homogeneous stands and be 2 × 2m or 4 × 4m according to the scale of the vegetation or, where stands are irregular, of identical size but different shape.