History of Naming Plants Flashcards
Where can the origins of classifying plants be traced back to?
Pre-literate civilization in China and Mexico
When did modern taxonomy systems really begin?
Ancient Greece (language was fully developed)
Theophrastus (370-285 B.C), who is he?
First person to classify plants according to characteristics such as shape and size (ex: herbaceous vs. trees)
What 7 characteristics of plants did Theophrastus observe?
*he described approx. 500 plants with this
1) Plant had internal and external organs
2) Various types of tissue existed in plants
3) Plants could be grouped into trees, shrubs, etc.
4) Flowering and non flowering plants
5) Reproduction could be asexual or sexual
6) Gross anatomy of plants were noticed
7) Fruit structures were recognized
Who was Pliny the Elder?
Caius Plinius Secundus (23-79 A.D). He was a roman lawyer who wrote Historia Naturalis- tried classifying everything in the world but was based on more forklore than observations
Who is Dioscorides? (first century A.D)
He was an ancient scholar and a military physician under emperor Nero of Rome who wrote Materia Medica (600 plants of Mediterranean origin used for medicine)- Primary source of plant ID for 1500 years
Who is Albertus Magnus (1200-1280 A.D)
Monocots and dicots
What happened in the 17th century?
Plants increased which required a more suitable classification system
Who is Pier Magnol?
a) created “family” classification which he grouped plants with similar physical appearance in roots, stems, seeds and flowers
b) magnolia tree is named after him
Who is Linnaeus? (1707-1778 A.D)
Karl Linne, he had the most effective classification system. He is responsible for the creation of Genus meaning they can be grouped together based on shared characteristics
What year did Linnaeus produce the Species Plantarum?
1753
What is the Species Plantarum?
Linnaeus made the assumptions that the reproductive parts on a plant were the most important and he introduced the binomial system (genus + specific epithet) FATHER OF TAXONOMY
Who was Darwin? (1854 A.D)
He had the “survival of the fittest” concept and the evolution of new species is through natural selection. It made botanists think of classification based on evolutionary relationship of plant species
Who were A. Engler and K Prantl? (1915 A.D)
German guys who produced a huge volume of works which organized species according to their evolutionary history
Who was Charles Bessey?
Same concept as A. Engler and K. Prantl but evolution was his central theme from the beginning. Most systems today are modified versions of his approach
