I used to think a soil test was the gold standard for evaluating raw land. Then I bought a hollow parcel in east Tennessee that scored decent on paper but turned out to be worn-out second-growth ground with almost nothing wild worth eating on it. Contrast that with a neighbor's place nearby — modest soil numbers, but loaded with ramps, trout lilies, black cohosh, and spicebush. That plant community told me what the soil test couldn't: decades of intact forest ecology, real organic matter cycling, and no chemical history. Now I walk a prospective piece before I read any report. What's volunteering in the understory? Are there indicator species? Ramps don't lie about soil biology the way a lab number can. I'd rather have a hollow full of spring ephemerals than a clean test on depleted ground. Most buyers aren't even looking for this, which means land with real ecological health is often underpriced. Anyone else using plant communities as part of their land evaluation, or do most folks still lead with the paperwork?