Plant Identitifation

PLANT IDENTIFICATION EVENT

The study and recognition of plants was the focus.

BACKGROUND

There are an estimated million plant species worldwide with 391 000 species of vascular plants currently known to science.

WHAT ARE PLANT CLASSIFICATIONS?

Understanding plant classifications is the basis of plant identification. Carl Linneus compiled the naming system to place everything within an evolutionary framework, known as the Taxonomic Hierarchy with 7 ranks called ''taxa''. Naming of organisms reflects their relationships to other organisms. Organisms lower down in the system display more similar characteristics. The naming system is referred to as binomial nomenclature which is based on the similarities of characteristics.

Botanical taxonomy relates to the structuring of plant identification into a systematic structure with logical groupings. The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature governs the formal, globally accepted naming of plants. Reclassification and renaming of plants is relatively common among scientists and botanists as DNA analysis progresses.

WHAT ARE THE COMMONLY ACCEPTED METHODS FOR NAMING PLANTS?

1. Visual classification.

2. Expert classification: matching species with herbarium specimens and book illustrations.

3. Molecular techniques such as DNA bar coding.

WHAT IS THE PRICESS OF NAMING PLANTS?

The process in Botanical Nomenclature is to determine the identity of a plant and match it with a plants specific name according to the properties it displays. Plants are formally named and described according to international regulations to ensure the names are appropriately assigned and to prevent confusion. International nomenclature of cultivated plants addresses the naming of plants not found in nature, which have been modified by humans.

DESCRIBE THE DIFFERENT PLANT TYPES AND HOW THEY ARE NAMED

By using this system, anyone in the world may recognise a plant by its genus and species.

- When the annotation subsp. is used, this shows that the plant differs slightly from the origin plant, due to evolution.

- A variety is a naturally occurring cross-fertilised plant and will show minor deviations from the origin plant.

- Cultivars are cultivated varieties that may have arisen through hybridisation.

- X - hybrid is a cross between two species.

Landscape Institute Event.

Image credit: WW Norton & Company Inc.