Plant Taxonomy (BIOL308) - Stephen G. Saupe, Ph.D.; Biology Department, College of St. Benedict/St. John's University, Collegeville, MN 56321; ssaupe@csbsju.edu; http://www.employees.csbsju.edu/ssaupe/ |
PHENETIC CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS
Biological classification is a process carried out in
order to communicate certain interrelationships of organisms. J. McNeill (1979) |
I. Some preliminaries
A. Definition of classification
Process or result (product) of arranging taxa into groups in
accordance with a plan and in conformity with a naming system
B. Function/Purpose
C. General Considerations
Since there are about 250,000 angiosperms, humans have needed to
classify and arrange these species in some sort of pigeonholes to be able to store and
retrieve information about these species. In order to refer to the groups, they must be named
according an accepted system of nomenclature. Thus, there is information content inherent
in a name since the name refers to a specific category(s) in the classification system.
The Linnean hierarchy of categories include: Kingdom, Division (phylum in
zoological circles), Class, Order, Family,
Genus species. The mnemonic, 'King David cried
"Oh, for goodness sake"'
is a good way to remember these categories. Remember that a group at any level is called a
taxon (plural - taxa) and that each category has a standard ending (Division -
ophyta; Class - opsida; SuperOrder - iflorae; Order - ales; Family - aceae;
Subfamily - oideae; genus and species have no standard endings). Theoretically, the
classification system is built from the bottom up. In other words, the species is the
basic unit of classification and it these are placed in progressively larger and more inclusive
pigeonholes.
D. What is a species?
This is the basic unit of taxonomy and it has been defined in
various ways by different botanists. Historically, a species was considered to
be an "actual or potentially interbreeding populations reproductively isolated from other
such groups". This definition highlights the notion of the "biological species
concepts" which is based on reproductive isolation. Although it may be appropriate for animal systems,
there are many problems when applying it to plants because plants have a diversity of
breeding systems. For example, hybridization and uni-parental reproduction (i.e., selfing)
are common and make the biological species concepts less useful for plants. Plant
biologists primarily define species as individuals that share morphological, ecological,
geographic and other characteristics and are separate evolutionary lineages. This latter notion
represents a phylogenetic approach to species.
E. OTU's
Operational taxonomic units; this is a fancy way of indicating the
groups (taxa) being classified. An OTU can refer to any level of the taxonomic hierarchy
including individuals of a species, or different species, or different genera, and so on.
F. Philosophy of classification
Taxa are grouped based on the relationships the taxonomist perceives to
exist between the individuals. There are two major types of relationships that exist
between individuals:
G. Conflicts
Users want functionality vs. different idea of creator
II. Artificial & Mechanical Classification Systems - ancient
phenetic systems
Based on one or a limited number of
characters. The characters are selected first, then the OTU's are analyzed and grouped
based on the criteria selected. This is referred to as an a priori classification
because the criteria are first established, and then the OTU's placed into the system.
Theophrastus, Greek philosopher (370-285 BC), was one of the first to classify plants. He used habit (i.e., tree, shrub) as the main character and then further subdivided them into cultivated and wild kinds. He was a student of Aristotle and is sometimes called the Founder (politically correct version of "father") of Botany. He was a good botanist - he distinguished between annual, perennial and biennial life cycles; recognized superior vs. inferior ovaries; determinate vs. indeterminate; and distinct vs. connate petals.
The Herbalists, who came later, classified plants primarily on the basis of their medicinal use. They believed in the Doctrine of Signatures (God gave us an indication of what a plant was good for in its general appearance. Therefore, bloodroot was considered good for disorders of the blood).
Thus, early classification systems were artificial and based primarily on habit and/or characteristics important to humans (i.e., medicines, food).
Linnaeus, our friend, also used an artificial system. His system was based on stamen number with secondary groups based on style number.
Artificial & Mechanical classification systems have advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages - artificial classifications are easy to use and reproducible.
Disadvantages - these systems lack any predictive value since they are not concerned about real (biological) relationships between units. Let's use an example from Keil and Walters assume for that we decide to classify objects based on whether or not they have legs. Using this criteria we would group such unrelated objects as a table, human, ladder, and spider. Botanically speaking, if habit is used as a character, that means we would we separate such obviously similar plants as Red-osier dogwood (Cornus stolonifera) which is a shrub, and bunchberry (Cornus canadensis) which is an herb. Similarly, we would group obviously dissimilar plants such as Magnolia and Rosa if we used stamen number as a character since both have numerous stamens.
III. Natural classifications - more recent phenetic systems.
The de Jussieu's (French; published Genera Plantarum) grouped plants on overall similarity. So did the de Candolle's (Swiss; published Prodromous Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis). Hooker and Bentham (British, Kew Gardens; Genera Plantarum) also prepared a well-respected natural system.
Remember, these classifications were essentially "Pre-Darwinian". The prevailing paradigm of the time was that species were fixed. Hence, biologists assumed that these phenetic classification systems would be a perfect way to organize and catalog biological diversity. However, once evolutionary ideas arrived, natural and phenetic classifications were largely abandoned for phylogenetic (phyletic) ones. That is, until phenetics was resurrected by the computer.
IV. Numerical Taxonomy - computerized phenetic systems
A. General.
The advent of computers allowed numerical taxonomists to study large
data sets and determine the similarity of the OTU's in a critical, unbiased manner. Sokal
and Sneath helped to popularize numerical taxonomy. In essence, the computer calculates
the similarity for every pair of OTU's and then plots a dendrogram (based on a cluster
analysis) that shows the similarity between the OTU's. Three important
assumptions/principles underlying this classification system are:
B. Method. In a numerical study:
C. Advantages
D. Disadvantages
E. End Product
A numerical classification produces a dendrogram that reflects the
similarity of the OTU's. Remember that when reading a dendrogram, it is not supposed to
indicate phylogeny (ancestry), just similarity. Some taxonomists believe, often with
good reason, that species that are more similar are more likely to be closely related than
those that look different. For a nice overview of
V. Sham Plants
We will illustrate artificial and phenetic classification using
"sham" plants created by Dr. W. Wagner, Michigan. Also, check
out the "Cookophyte" example by J. McNeill.
VI. A brief timeline of classification systems
300 BC - 1500 AD | Mostly artificial systems, based on habit |
mid 1500's | Herbalists - classification based on medicinal or other commercial value of plants |
1750's | Refinement of artificial classifications using more biologically important characteristics (some would call these mechanical classification systems). These are good for information retrieval. Practitioners were more interested in the system than in the plant or relationships themselves. Period during which Linnaeus worked. |
1859 | Darwin and natural selection |
1860's | Natural systems refined further by utilizing numerous characters; species most related if shared lots of characters |
1880's+ | Post-Darwinian classifications have attempted to be phylogenetic |
1970's+ | Cladistic systems |
VII. References:
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Last updated:
08/20/2007 / � Copyright by SG
Saupe