Identification and Characteristics of Plant Taxonomy

About the Study

The idea, name, and classification of groupings of organism remain at the heart of taxonomy, however the precise definition changes from source to source. Below are some current taxonomy definitions to use as a guide. Theory and application of the process of classifying organisms by dividing them into species, then placing those species into larger groupings and giving those groups names. A branch of research that includes description, identification, naming, and classification and is a significant part of systematics. Biology's organisation of creatures into a classification according to the science of classification.

The science of classification as it relates to living things, including research into how species form, etc. The examination of an organism's traits with a view to classification. To establish a pattern that may be used to classify organisms and give them names in the broader discipline of taxonomy, systematics investigates phylogeny (listed as a desirable but unusual definition).

The study of the classification of living things according to their natural relationships and the study of variation and the evolution of taxa, according to the definition of taxonomy.

A taxonomic revision or taxonomic review is a fresh examination of the patterns of variation within a certain taxon. Any combination of the available character types, including morphological, anatomical, palynological, biochemical, and genetic information, may be used to conduct this analysis. A monograph, also known as a complete revision, is an exhaustive revision of a taxon for the data available at a specific period and for the entire world. Other (partial) revisions might be constrained in the sense that they only make use of a small number of character sets or have a constrained spatial range. A revision results in a conformation of or new insights in the relationships between the subtaxa within the taxon under investigation, which may cause a change in the subtaxa's classification, the identification of new subtaxa, or the merging of earlier subtaxa.

The taxonomic characteristics that can be utilised to support the evidence from which relationships (the phylogeny) between species are deduced are known as taxonomic features. Some examples of taxonomic characteristics are:

External morphology in general, unique structures (e.g. genitalia), morphology on the inside (anatomy), Embryology, Karyology and other cytological elements. Metabolic factors, Body secretions, genic sterility factors.

Immunological distance, Electrophoretic variations, proteins' amino acid sequences, hybridization of DNA, patterns in RNA and DNA, Analysis using restriction endonucleases, Additional molecular variations. Other ethologically isolating practises such as courtship, many behavioural patterns. Habit and habitats, food, seasonal variations, parasites and hosts. Patterns of general biogeographic distribution, Populations' sympatric-allopatric relationship.

Alpha and beta taxonomy

"Alpha Taxonomy" is most often used to describe the science of discovering, classifying, and identifying taxa, especially species. The phrase originally referred to morphological taxonomy and the findings of study conducted to the end of the 19th century, with a different meaning in previous literature. Taxonomists are becoming more and more eager to look at their issues from broader perspectives, explore opportunities for closer collaboration with their colleagues in cytology, ecology, and genetics, and admit that their goals and methods may need some revision or expansion, possibly of a drastic nature. It is possible to glimpse a distant taxonomy built upon as broad a basis of morphological and physiological facts as possible while accepting the older, invaluable taxonomy based on structure, conveniently referred to as alpha, in which "place is found for all observational and experimental data relating, even if indirectly, to the constitution, subdivision, origin, and behaviour of species and other taxonomic groups."