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Plant Taxonomy

whowe

Willie
Is there a good place to learn plant taxonomy or a good starter for taxonomy in general? Does plant taxonomy just as much as herp taxonomy?
 
Welcome to TF! Are you specifically looking for the taxonomy of cp's or plant taxonomy, in general? Have you Googled plant taxonomy?
 
A friend of mine is into Herp big time. His new site will be up later herperhaven.com. But he was complaining that sometimes it is hard to keep up with the taxonomy b/c it is always changing. Just wondering if I will have this challenge the further I get into this.
 
True plant taxonomy has a huge amount of very specific nomenclature attached to it for maximum descriptive ability. Are you wanting to be able to read descriptive texts that include terms like orbicular-ovate with serrulate margins and understand what they mean? Thats the language of exact plant taxonomy. Its helpful for plant identification, being able to read an exact description. What to you hope to use this skill with? Identification?
 
Edit: Shifting understanding of groups relationships, or errors in spelling etc contribute to an ever-changing taxonomic landscape, you would need t have a good database tht keeps up to-date reserch, plus an archive of what the previous names were. For example, you not only will want to know that campanulastrum americanum is the most up-to date name of american bellflower but also if you keep a site you will need to know that the old name was Campanula americana and the name was changed because of its unique flower structure. Do you want a database like that?

Keeping up to date is finding out when the names switch on you, and that is no easy task for anyone.
 
Yes, that is what I want to learn, or have on hand.
 
Ok i will get back to ya with a list of good places later today. I have to run now but i understand what your looking for.
 
Thanks!
 
  • #10
Ok first things first, and that is to ignore the wikipedian classification system. It follows APG II and that classification methodology used by APG II is crap.


Introduction to plant taxonomy:
http://www.geog.ubc.ca/~brian/florae/IntroductiontoPlantTaxonomy.html


I recommend starting with leaves. A good site is

http://www.bridgewater.edu/~lhill/leafmorphology.htm
But the photo's can be hard to see clearly so this is an drawing plate.

plate05.jpg


A good glossary reference with everything from growth forms to compositions is here. This is the best all around visual site.

http://www.vplants.org/plants/glossary/plate_all.html

*all these sites are simply terminology references, but thats the best place to start.
_______________
Databases

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonom...id=16360&lvl=3&lin=f&keep=1&srchmode=1&unlock

http://www.itis.gov/

http://www.efloras.org/index.aspx
 
  • #11
That is awesome, thanks alot!
 
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