History of Plant Taxonomy

1. History of Plant Taxonomy • Preliterate People • arranged plants by usefulness • food, poisonous, medicinal (artificial)

2. History of Plant Taxonomy • Preliterate People • arranged plants by usefulness • food, poisonous, medicinal (artificial)

3. History of Plant Taxonomy • Baked Clay -> Papyrus (Egyptians) -> Printing Press

4. History of Plant Taxonomy • Theophrastus - 4thC BC Greek • Plants: • Woody • trees, shrubs, undershrubs • Herbaceous • Detailed descriptions of many plant features: • sepals, petals, stamen, pistils (superior, inferior) • Alexander The Great

5. History of Plant Taxonomy • Dioscordes Roman 1stC AD • Materia Medica • (Not much in terms of major improvements in botany through Middle Ages - until 13thC.)

6. History of Plant Taxonomy • Dioscordes Roman 1stC AD • Materia Medica • (Not much in terms of major improvements in botany through Middle Ages - until 13thC.) • Ancient manuscripts copies in Monasteries during the Middle Ages. • Errors….no spirit of investigation

7. History of Plant Taxonomy • Albert Magmus 13thC • University of Paris • Many Topics including Botany • De Vegetabilis 1256 AD • modified Theophrasian system • greater no. of plants • Dicots vs. monocots • vascular vs. nonvascular plants

8. History of Plant Taxonimy • Movable print (15 thC) made easy the spread of ancient works and new works.

9. History of Plant Taxonimy • Movable print (15 thC) made easy the spread of ancient works and new works. • 15thC - 18thC Age of Herbals • artifical systems “Doctrine of Signatures” • natural systems evolved slowly

10. History of Plant Taxonimy • Movable print (15 thC) made easy the spread of ancient works and new works. • 15thC - 18thC Age of Herbals • artifical systems “Doctrine of Signatures” • natural systems evolved slowly • Tremendous increase in no. of plants discovered…. 15thC L. GhiniHerbarium

11. History of Plant Systematics • Index Herbariorum Vol. 106, 1981 • 1700 of world’s Herbaria

12. History of Plant Systematics • Index Herbarium Vol. 106, 1981 • 1700 of world’s Herbaria • Andrea Caesalpino 16thC Italian • Classification system based on morphological similarities De Plantis Libri (artificial)

13. History of Plant Systematics • Index Herbariorum Vol. 106, 1981 • 1700 of world’s Herbaria • Andrea Caesalpino 16thC Italian • Classification system based on morphological similarities De Plantis Libri (artificial) • Casper Baughin 17thC German • described over 6000 plants • 1st to use binomial nomenclature

14. History of Plant Systematics • John Ray 17thC English • Set out to describe all organisms. • Herbs, Arbores • Monocots, Dicots • Used Polynomials • 1800 species (500 new) • “Type Specimen” • Immutability of Species

15. Carolus Linneaus 18thC Swedish binomial nomenclature Species Plantarum 1753 Artificial (stamen no.) Defined some natural groups in later works: Compositae Gramineae Solanaceae History of Plant Taxonomy

16. G. Bentham 19thC Eng. J.D. Hooker 19thC Eng. History of Plant Taxonomy

17. History of Plant Taxonomy • Bentham and Hooker • Genera Plantarum 1863 • Most complete pre-evolutionary work - • natural classification.

18. History of Plant Taxonomy • Bentham and Hooker • Genera Plantarum 1863 • Most complete pre-evolutionary work - • natural classification.

19. History of Plant Taxonomy • Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace • - Paper to the Linnaean Society 1858

20. History of Plant Taxonomy • Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace • - Paper to the Linnaean Society 1858 • Origin of Species 1859 C. Darwin

21. History of Plant Taxonomy • Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace • - Paper to the Linnaean Society 1858 • Origin of Species 1859 C. Darwin • Species are dynamic and variable population systems that change through time.

22. History of Plant Taxonomy • Adolf Engler and Karl Prantl late 19thC German • The Natural Plant Families • most modern plant families described • proposed unisexual flowers primitive • arranged plants primitive ---> advanced • (simple = primitive)

23. Charles Bessey 20thC American 1915 - natural phyletic system for flowering plants based on evolution. Accepted Ranalian Line as most primitive (Ranucluaceae, magnoliaceae - Ranales). Based on dicta used to separate primitive from advanced. History of Plant Systematics

24. History of Plant Taxonomy • Modified Bessian Classification Schemes: • Auther Cronquist 1968 NY Bot. Gardens • Armen Takhtajan 1969 Soviete Union • Robert Thorne 1976 Rancho Santa Anna Bot. Gardens, California

25. History of Plant Taxonomy • A. Takhtajan and Auther Cronquist

26. Kingdom: Plantae • Division: Bryophyta • Division: Sphenophyta • Division: Pterophyta • Division: Coniferophyta • Division: Anthophyta

27. Kingdom: Plantae • Division: Bryophyta “mosses and liverworts” • Division: Sphenophyta “horsetails” • Division: Pterophyta “ferns” • Division: Coniferophyta “spruces, firs, pines” • Division: Anthophyta “flowering plants”

28. Literature of Plant Taxonomy • Records - Library and Herbarium • Publications: • Monograph -

29. Literature of Plant Taxonomy • Records - Library and Herbarium • Publications: • Monograph - covers a specific group of plants: family, genera, etc. (Revisions, Synopses) • Flora -

30. Literature of Plant Taxonomy • Records - Library and Herbarium • Publications: • Monograph - covers a specific group of plants: family, genera, etc. (Revisions, Synopses) • Flora - Treatment of plants in a defined geographical area. (Local Flora) • Research Reports -decription of new species or reclassifications. Taxon • journals, indices

31. Taxonomic “Types” • Type Specimen - • one representative of the taxon • Holotype - • specimen designated by the author in the original publication (nomenclatural type) • Isotype - • a duplicate specimen of the holotype collected at the same time and place (may be in other herbarium) • Lectotype - • a specimen chosen from the author’s original material when no holotype has been designated.

32. Taxonomic “Types” • Neotype- • selected when all original specimens have been destroyed