Plant Taxonomy

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. Nomenclature and Taxonomy. 3. Vascular Plants. 4. Structural Characters. 5. Biochemical Characters. 6. Evolution and Phylogenetic Relationships. 7. Flowering Plant Taxonomy. 8. Systematic Botany.

Taxonomy is the science of plant classification. The word taxon refers to any taxonomic entity, regardless of rank. In other words, the plant family Ericaceae is a taxon, the genus Vaccinium is a taxon, and the species Vaccinium angustifolium is a taxon.

Plant Taxonomy is an old science that uses the gross morphology of plants to separate them into similar groups. Quite often the characteristics that distinguished the plants become a part of their name.

This book is not really concerned with taxonomy as a modern science, but is more a reflection of research interests. The aim of being n introduction to taxonomy as a part of contemporary science could be better achieved by reducing the mount of detail in chapters and then using the space gained to present more balanced treatments of recent techniques such as DNA sequencing, cladistics, and biogeography.

This book assumes nothing more than the most general knowledge of botany, and it is therefore eminently readable by the general public, but in attempting to distill the essence of taxonomy it’s the science that gets short shift. This book is probably quite acceptable as a textbook, would certainly be better for both class of biologists as well as class of botanists. For students, teachers, scientists, researchers and all others interested in plant taxonomy, will be high value reference results.