Plant
Classification
Classification Systems
 Climatic



Warm Season
Cool Season
Tropical
 Use



Agronomic
Horticultural
Ornimental
 Taxonomic



Scientific Naming
System
Names are always in
Latin
The same name is
used world wide
Botanical Classification of Crop Plants:
Kingdom –_____________(All Plants)
Phylum – _____________(Seed Plants)
Class –_____________(Seeds in fruits)
These are the same for all crop plants.
Two Subclasses that are important in
Crop Plants:
1. Monocotyledonae – one seed
leaf in the embryo.
2. Dicotyledonae - two seed
leaves in the embryo.
.
Taxonomic or Scientific
Classification
 Generally
you will start out with a plant
family name


Asteraceae
Poaceae
 Followed

by Genus
Magnolia
 Species

grandiflora L.
Types of Names
 Common

Prickly Sida
 Local

Teaweed
 Scientific

Sida spinosa
Monocot
Monocot
Dicot
Dicot
Crop Plants
 Two
Major Types
Cereals
Poaceae – (Gramineae) all
grasses
Legumes
Fabaceae – (Leguminoseae)
Cereals—Family Poaceae
 Wheat
— Triticum aestivum
 Corn — Zea mays
 Rice — Oryza sativa
 Rye — Secale cereal
 Sorghum — Sorghum bicolor
 Oats — Avena sativa
 Millet – Pennisetum glaucum
 Barley Hordeum vulgare
Cereal Grains
 10-15%
_________
 8-14% ___________
 70-75% __________
 2-7% _________
Grains
 can’t
be eaten whole
 must be processes






pounded
ground
cooked
roasted
soaked
parched
Characteristics of grasses:
1. Most are herbaceous with hallow cylindrical
stems.
2. Stems are made of ____________
3. Leaves have parallel veins.
4. Leaves consist of two parts a sheath and a leaf.
5. Roots are fibrous.
Legume Crops—Family
Fabaceae
 Produces
seed that contain two to three
times more protein than cereals
 The 2nd most important plant family
Legume Yield
 Legume
yields have not increases over
time as much as have cereal crops




less research
more personal income —eat less legumes
yield more variable
legumes produce own nitrogen
Biological Nitrogen Fixation
 _________________
takes N2 from the air
and produces plant usable forms of
nitrogen


legumes can grow on nitrogen poor soils
legumes do use soil N for first few weeks
Legume Crops
 Common
Beans —
Phaseolus vulgaris
 Soybean — Glycine
max
 Cowpea — Vigna
unquiculata
 Alfalfa – Medicago
sativa
Characteristics of Fabaceae Family:
1. Leaves alternate on stems, netted veins and most are
compound.
2. Fruit is a pod that contains several seeds.
3. Root is a taproot.
4. Often roots have nodules caused by Bradyrhizobium
bacteria which fixes nitrogen in a plant
useable form.
Other Families in Field Crops:
Polygonaceae – buckwheat
Chenopodiaceae – sugarbeet
Cruciferae – mustard, rape, and kale
Solanaceae – potato, tomato
Malvaceae – cotton
Compositae – sunflower, safflower
Binomial System of Nomenclature:
Latin is used for scientific names
because it is a “dead” language.
When writing the scientific name it
should be written as follows:
Genus species
Genus species
Classification based on Life Cycles:
1. Annuals –________ from seed in
one year. Sunflower, corn,
soybeans (most field crops)
2. Winter Annuals –
______________then produce
seed the following summer.
Wheat, rye, barley
3. Biennials –_________. First year is
vegetative, 2nd year reproductive.
Musk thistle, Sugar beets, Sweetclover,
carrots.
3. Perennial - living several years. Most
pasture grasses, alfalfa, sorghum.