Lecture 5: Classification, Taxonomy, Domestication - 10/9 Flashcards
Taxonomy
The ordered naming and division of organisms
What are the units in taxonomy?
Taxa (singular: taxon)
Theophrastus
Proposed a systematic treatment of over 500 species according to habitat and separated into flowering and non-flowering
Artificial classification systems
Based on physical appearance of plants
Carl Linnaeus
Created a ‘sexual’ system that divided plants into different classes based on flower morphology. Its application produced ‘unnatural groupings’
Linnaeus’ system of classification
Kingdoms, divisions, classes, orders, genera, species
Binomial nomenclature
A combination of genus and species
Phylogeny
The evolutionary history of a species inferred from morphological and molecular data
Clade
A common ancestor and all its lineal descendants; a monophyletic group
Six most important plant families
Fabaceae (legume)
Solanaceae (tomato)
Brassicaceae (cabbage)
Rosaceae (rose)
Poaceae (grass)
Liliaceae (lily)
Groups/subspecies
Crops that have been bred to such an extent that groups/subspecies have been created
For example, in the brassica family, kale, broccoli, and cabbage all count as groups/subspecies
Cultivar
A further development of a group/subspecies
Examples of this would be in tomatoes, where there are many cultivars such as Mochi (F1), Cherokee Purple to name a few
Six major sites of crop origin
Fertile Crescent
Central Africa
Central China
Southeast Asia
North America
Chile-Ecuador-Bolivia
Fertile Crescent crops
First barley, emmer wheat, legumes
Central Africa crops
Sorghum and millet