Hi I realize I might be asking a complicated question, but I’m going to give it a go anyway. I’d like to know why there are so many problems with plant taxonomy. I’ve started studying plants about a year ago and I use different books and online sources. It’s rather frustrating that there are so ma…

I realize that this is going to be a somewhat unsatisfying and maybe even annoying answer, but as far as I can tell the complexity accurately reflects the objective reality of evolution… which is unsatisfying for our order-seeking, narrative-oriented brains. The crux of the issue is a platitude at …

my unpopular explanation: because splitters exist. I will leave it at that because too many people here have already had to read my rants :)

We humans need simple, clear words to decribe plants, so we can communicate clearly. Real animals and plants have no need for our neat words. They evolve in sometimes unclear ways. Matching our words to real organisms inevitably leaves room for confusion and disagreement. I wish this weren’t tru…

Although DNA doesn’t often do a good job of determining where to draw lines between species, it does a very good job or showing what’s related to what. Sometimes the relationships are different enough that we feel a need to change taxonomy, sometimes including species names. Sigh.

Systematists do science in the search for the one true phylogeny. Taxonomists are file clerks. (I say that as someone who loves the complexities and arcane features of taxonomy.)

A portion of the problem can be attributed to history: beginning with Linnaeus, binomials have been attached to vascular plants, with physically similar species grouped into genera. These genera were further grouped into families, families into orders, etc, based on physical features. Over time, o…

[image] liesvanrompaey: Can’t some kind of DNA test be used to decide if plants are different species? (I know this is probably very naive). Excellent question and excellent replies above. The answer to the question about genetic tests is that in many cases it is possible to use a genetic t…

Tl;dr: I don’t think there is a simple answer! As a few people have said in various ways, there are several issues: There is no universally accepted definition of a species. Groupings above that (genera, families) become even more artificial. Some people expect that a given amount of morphologica…

@liesvanrompaey – I used to be troubled by the various taxonomies I ran across for various groups of organisms until I realized that any taxonomic arrangement that is proposed in the literature is a hypothesis (or theory, if you prefer) about relationships and thus can be tested and potentially reje…

Why is plant taxonomy so complicated?

Nature Talk

sarahduhon May 21, 2019, 6:42pm 4

You think plants are hard… try fungi!

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Why is plant taxonomy so complicated?

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