background image

For example, similar overall appearances are sometimes due to 

parallel evolution as with cacti resembling certain desert 

euphorbias

For such examples, we already knew the groups weren’t related because 
of flower structure, but newer studies…

Sometimes place plants with very different looking flowers in the same 
family as, for example, the penstemons from the Scrophulariaceae and the 
plantains in the Plantaginaceae (many scrophs are now placed there)

When something like this happens, it wreaks havoc with trying to learn to 
i.d. plants by appearances, making family concepts sometimes almost 
impossible to characterize

As a consequence, many changes, some startling, have come down the 
pike, and life is not as straightforward

What we really need are two classification systems: a practical one based 
on appearance for field botanists, and a theoretical one for those who 
study evolution

Comments:

PLANT TAXONOMY (Identification, classification and description of plants)

navigate_before navigate_next