Plant systematics - History

Question 1

What have we known about plants since Neolithic times?

Answer 1

We know we can’t survive without them, need vitamins only found in plants. We needed to know what we can eat, what can be used as medicine, what we can build houses out of and make clothes from

Question 2

Who was Theophrastus?

Answer 2

The head of Lyceum after Aristotle, considered the father of botany

Question 3

What did Theophrastus contribute to our understanding of plants?

Answer 3

Wrote “Historia Plantarum” and “On the causes of plants”, which was the first systemization

Question 4

How did Theophrastus group plants together?

Answer 4

Medicinal utility

Question 5

What did Andrea Caesalpino do?

Answer 5

Grouped plants based on physiological characteristics instead of medicinal properties

Question 6

What did John Ray do?

Answer 6

Defined a species as the basic taxonomic unit based on heritage and morphological patterns. Defined monocots and dicots

Question 7

How did John Ray say a species was passed down?

Answer 7

Passed down through hereditary traits

Question 8

What did Carl Linnaeus do?

Answer 8

Created the binomial system of taxonomy and studied plant reproduction extensively

Question 9

How were plants named before the binomial system?

Answer 9

An absurdly long latin name based on morphological traits

Question 10

What did Peter Artedi do?

Answer 10

Characterized fish based on hereditary traits, and may have been the source of Linnaeus’ ideas

Question 11

Who was Joseph Banks? What did he do?

Answer 11

One of the first great Botanical explorers, who was a friend and advisor of King George the 3rd. He sent lots of people out around the world to collect plants to be grown in the Kew botanical gardens

Question 12

Who was David Nelson?

Answer 12

One of the botanical explorers, who travelled around South-east Asia on the Bounty

Question 13

Why was the Bounty in South-east Asia?

Answer 13

Get a bunch of breadfruit plants to feed the colonies, since European crops don’t do well in tropical climates

Question 14

What happened during the Mutiny of the Bounty?

Answer 14

A bunch of the crew decided they didn’t like the captain, so they organized a mutiny and left, taking the bread fruit with them. David Nelson and some others stayed loyal to the captain, and they stopped in Tofua but were attacked and driven off by the indigenous people. The captain and the remaining crew rowed all the way to the nearest colony in Coupang in a 7 metre boat with no supplies. Nelson died from a fever 3 days after arriving

Question 15

Who was David Douglas?

Answer 15

One of the later botanical explorers who explored the west coast of North America

Question 16

What happened to David Douglas?

Answer 16

On the second expedition, he went missing when he fell down a gorge, got swept away by the river and was saved by the indigenous people. On the third expedition he was found dead in the crater of a volcano with a bull

Question 17

What was the original purpose of the herbarium?

Answer 17

A book of dried medicinal plants

Question 18

What did Luca Ghini do?

Answer 18

First person to dry plants under pressure and mount them

Question 19

Where is the largest herbarium kept today?

Answer 19

Kew botanical gardens

Question 20

Do we still use the herbarium at Kew botanical gardens today?

Answer 20

Yes, for DNA samples, validating taxonomic classifications, looking for new phytochemicals, look for evolutionary differences in 400 years

Question 21

Why are plants worth dying for?

Answer 21

So much phytochemical diversity with so many possible uses

Question 22

Why did plants evolve the traits that make them so valuable?

Answer 22

For their own defence since they can’t get up and run away from a predator, for communication, to respond to stimuli

Question 23

Why has the entire history of botany been utilitarian?

Answer 23

Study of plants has been focused on taxonomy and uses, not as organisms. We have only been interested in what we can eat, farm, use for medicine