Botanical History
I. Preliterate Beginnings
II. Early Western Civilizations
Theophrastus (370 -285 B.C.)
•
Student of Plato and Aristotle and often called the "Father of Botany"
•
Of his many writings only "Enquiry into Plants" and "The Causes of Plants" survived.
•
Classified plants into four groups: herbs, undershrubs, shrubs, and trees.
•
Theophrastus wrote about 500 kinds of plants.
•
Daucus, Asparagus, and Narcissus are from Theophrastus.
Caius Plinus Secundus, (23-79 A.D.) "Pliny the Elder"
•
Produced Historia Naturalis, "Natural History"
•
37 volume set to record everything known about the world including 9 volumes
devoted to Botany.
Pedanios Dioscorides (1st century A.D.)
•
Wrote "Materia Medica" - firsthand account of various plants used in medicine.
•
Described 600 species of plants and some major groups were placed together (mints
and umbels)
•
"Materia Medica" was the basic source of information about plants for 1500 years.
•
The Codex Juliana is a beautiful copy of "Materia Medica" that was prepared for an
emperor's daughter and is in the Imperial Library in Vienna.
III. Medieval Botany - The Middle Ages
•
Very little original work done during this period.
•
Several Greek works were preserved by Islamic Scholars but no new classification
systems
Increasing the sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants, and landscapes.
Page 1
•
Albertus Magnus (1193-1280 A.D.) (St. Albert) produced a classification system that
recognized monocots and dicots.
IV. Herbalists
•
Early Renaissance (14th Century) printing press was invented.
•
Navigation enabled collection of plants from all over the world.
•
Botany is synonymous with herbalism: the study of plants for medicinal uses
German "Fathers of Botany" (15th and 16th century)
•
Otto Brunfels, Leonhart Fuchs, Jerome Bock
•
Works were mainly medical and agricultural uses of plants based on original
observations, dealt with about 1000 plants, but no classification scheme
V. Italian Renaissance (15th and 16th century)
•
During this period the number of plants known was becoming too high to handle without
a classification system.
•
Luca Ghini (1490-1556) invented the herbarium
•
Andrea Caesalpino tried to base a hierarchical taxonomic scheme upon reason and logic.
•
John Ray grouped similar plants together (18,000 species) based on morphology and
reproduction.
•
Caspar Bauhin (1560-1603) published a list of 6,000 plant names including Synonyms.
First to use the concept of Genus.
•
Tournefort (1656-1708) consistently used the Genus concept but his classification was
artificial.
VI. The Linnaean Period
•
Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) created a modern referable system of nomenclature "Father of
Plant Taxonomy"
Increasing the sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants, and landscapes.
Page 2
•
His system was based on numbers of parts, which does not give a "natural" classification
but the major contribution was that it was usable by anyone trained in Botany.
•
An important facet was the use of binomial nomenclature with a genus name and specific
epithet.
•
This system is still in use.
•
Linnaeus main work was "Species Plantarum", published in 1753 in 2 volumes
VII. Natural Systems
•
The system produced by Linnaeus was clearly only a readily referable cataloging
system.
•
Most advances from 1700's to early 1800's were by Frenchmen
o Michel Adanson - assumed no single character is intrinsically more important
than any other.
o de Jussieau family - "Genera Plantarum" was the first major "natural" work, based
on placement of like plants together.
o de Condolle family - Swiss, "Prodromus" - flora of the world, obviously
incomplete, but remains only systematic treatment available for some plant
groups.
o George Bentham and Joseph Hooker - "Genera Plantarum" (1862-1883),
collection of generic descriptions taken from original observation, very complete
and precise.
o Lamarck unsuccesful attempt to explain evolution also developed the early keys
in Flora Francaise.
VIII. The Influence of Evolution on Systematics
•
Charles Darwin - "Origin of Species" (1859)
•
The publication of "Origin of Species" encouraged botanists to incorporate evolutionary
concepts into classifications.
Increasing the sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants, and landscapes.
Page 3
•
Erasmus, his father was a poet and a free thinker.
Increasing the sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants, and landscapes.
Page 4
Plant Taxonomy
I. Definitions
•
Systematics - is the science of identifying, naming, and classifying organisms. The
scientific study of the diversity of organisms and how they are related in an evolutionary
context.
•
Taxonomy (taxis=arrangement, nomos=law ) - is the science of identifying taxa,
classifying them and naming them. Taxonomy is synonymous with Systematics but
sometimes restricted to classification.
•
Classification - is the arrangement of groups based on common characteristics. Similar
species are placed in a Genus (plural, genera); similar genera are grouped into a Family;
similar families are grouped into Order...Classes....Division...Kingdom (see Article 3.1
ICBN).
•
Taxa (singular, taxon) - is a generic term applied to any taxonomic group at any rank (see
Article 1.1 ICBN). In systematics the taxon of interest is the species because these are
groups of organisms that are evolving independently of other such groups.
•
Nomenclature - is the orderly application of names to taxa. Nomenclature has been
formalized in western science into a strict system of rules (ICBN).
II. Why Plant Taxonomy?
•
It is important to name things so that people can communicate about organisms.
•
Survival of early humans depended on it.
•
Humans have always been concerned with identifying plants and animals.
•
Unfortunately, each culture and civilization developed its own system of nomenclature.
III. Objectives of Taxonomy
1.
To inventory the world's flora
2.
To provide a method for identification and communication
3.
To produce a coherent and universal system of classification
4.
To demonstrate the evolutionary implications of plant diversity
Increasing the sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants, and landscapes.
Page 5
5.
To provide a single, latinized, scientific name for every group of plants in the world,
extant and fossil.
A. Work to be Done
•
Of the estimated 4-6 million species inhabiting the earth, less than half have been
classified.
•
Most temperate (northern hemisphere) species (1 million) have been discovered.
•
In the tropics, where diversity is greatest (3 million spp.) only about 500,000 species have
been described.
•
95% of all species that have ever existed have gone extinct.
B. Classification Systems
•
Ever since Darwin, Taxonomists have had a goal beyond simple organization. To have a
system of classification which reflects the evolutionary connections among .
•
Artificial Classification - organisms are classified to make it easy to identify species.
•
Phylogenetic Classification (natural system) - classify organisms based on Phylogeny
(evolutionary history of a group or lineage).
IV. Phases of Taxonomy
A. Exploration and Discovery Phase (Alpha Taxonomy)
•
Started in 1400, peaked in 1800, and continues today in the Tropics.
•
The explorers sent specimens back to Europe for naming and description.
•
Botanists, overwelmed by the number of new species creatred herbaria (singular,
herbarium) of dried and pressed specimens.
B. Synthesis Phase
Increasing the sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants, and landscapes.
Page 6
•
Material is classified based on morphology (form and structure). Pre-Darwinian
classification based on typology.
•
Typology - each natural taxon has an idealized type (Plato) denial or variability within a
taxon, imperfect realizations of an ideal.
C. Experimental Phase
•
Putting the information or data into an evolutionary context.
•
Studies on chemical, morphological and genetic variation often have an impact on higher
taxonomic categories.
Goals for this Track
•
Learn to recognize a large number of plants from the central Texas flora.
•
Understand the techniques scientists use to identify the unknowns.
•
Develop an appreciation for the scientific, economic and aesthetic value of plants.
•
Become familiar with both traditional and modern methods scientists use to categorize
diversity
Increasing the sustainable use and conservation of native wildflowers, plants, and landscapes.
Page 7