What is Plant Taxonomy? (original) (raw)

Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025

**Plant taxonomy is the branch of science that deals with plant identification, name, classification, and description. Plant taxonomy is associated with plant systematics. Plant systematics is the study that evaluates the relationship between plants and their evolution at higher levels while plant taxonomy deals with handling specimens whether it is known or unknown species.

Table of Content

• What is Plant Taxonomy?
• Characteristics of Plant Taxonomy
• Plant identification, classification and description
• Classification system in Plant Taxonomy
• Advancemnt in Plant Taxonomy system
• Importance of Plant Taxonomy

What is Plant Taxonomy?

**Plant Taxonomy is the branch of botany that identifies the noval or unknown plant species, classify them into various group on the basis of evolutionary relationship and similarities. Plant Taxonomy is also about describing them and provide a name that is known as nomenclature. Objective of plant taxonomy is to segregate and arrange them in similar group that shows relatedness on genetic level.

Also Read: Plant kingdom

Plant taxonomy classifies and provides the name to the new species at taxonomical level, which is written below.

• **Kingdom: Different living beings are divided into different kingdoms based on certain characteristics. For instance, plants, fungi and animals. Kingdom classification is the highest rank in taxonomic category.
• **Phylum: Phylum is situated below the kingdom classification and based on phylum plants are divided into 13 different phyla, which includes
  • **Anthocerotophyta (Common name: Hornworts)
  • **Bryophyta (Common name: Mosses)
  • **Charophyta (Common name: Charophytes)
  • **Chlorophyta (Common name: Chlorophytes)
  • **Cycadophyta (Common name: cycada)
  • **Ginkgophyta (Common name: Ginkgo, maidenhair tree)
  • **Glaucophyta (Common name: Glaucophytes)
  • **Gnetophyta (Common name: Gnetophytes)
  • **Lycopodiophyta (Common name: Clubmosses, Spikemosses)
  • **Magnoliophyta (Common name: Angiosperms)
  • **Marchantiophyta (Common name: Liverworts)
  • **Pinophyta ( Common name: Conifers)
  • **Pteridophyta **(**Common name: Horsetails, ferns)
• **Class/Order: It was first introduced by Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (French botanist) in 1684. It is situated below phyla and above order.
• **Family: Those plants have similar characteristics are divided into families. Family of plants is recognised by the end letter of name. For instance, ceae at end of name may belong to family Proteaceae that include Protea, Leucospermum and Leucadendron.
• **Genus: Genus is the first half of the scientific name of the plant and it always written in italics.
• **Species,Subspecies and variety: Scientific name of the plant consists of genus at first and second half is species of the plant. Different species having same characteristics are situated into same species. Subspecies and varieties are variation within the species level. Such as Solanum melongena var. Arka harshita.

Characteristics of Plant Taxonomy

Characterstics of plant taxonomy are given below:

1. Plants are taxonomically divided beacuse the different from animals
2. Plants have cell wall of cellulose.
3. Plants have pleuploidy and also shows sedantry growth.
4. Plants make their food using sunlight known as photosynthesis.

Plant Identification, Classification and Description

These are the three goals of Plant Taxonomy system

1. **Plant identification: Whenever someone finds noval species of plant they need to identify it using molecular methods and compare it with previously present database. Once identification has been established, it can be available to public.
2. **Plant classification: Plants are classified on the basis of hierchy system such as
   1. **Kingdom: Plante
   2. **Division: Mangoliophyta
   3. **Class: Liliopsida
   4. **Order: Liliales
   5. **Family: Liliaceae
3. **Plant description: Once plant identification and classification has been established, its description is provided into research papers. Like its property, appearance etc.

List of Systems in Plant Taxonomy

Only a few vegetative features were taken into consideration by the first categorization scheme. In addition to physical aspects, more complex modern taxonomic investigations have taken into account a variety of morphological, cellular, and molecular factors, such as cellular and reproductive features, method of feeding, habitat, evolutionary connections, etc. Main system on which classification of plant system has been divised

Artifical System

• This was based on the most basic characteristics, such as habit and the quantity and arrangement of sexual units.
• It is dominating from the year 300 BC and considerd to be the old method.
• This approach, which often uses one or a few characters to aid in identifying.

Natural System

• It was proposed by Linnaeus and was based on floral characteristics and cotyledon numbers.
• It considered a number of internal and exterior characteristics, including phytochemistry, different kinds of embryos, and cell architecture.
• The most significant natural system of categorization for flowering plants was the Bentham and Hooker system.

Phylogentic System

• It was developed after Darwin's theory.
• Phylogenetic system was based on genetic relationship and evolution.
• There are two main phylogenetic system, (1) Enger and Prantl system (2) John hutchinson system classification.

Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) System

It was most moderna and molecular based plant taxonomy system classification and are updated three time

• APG II publishedin 2003 and replaced original APG classification
• APG III published in 2009 and replaced APG II clssification
• APG IV published in 2016 and replaced APG III classification

Bessey System Classificaion

It was published by Charles Bessey in 1915.

• **Cronquist system: This system classification by published by Arthur Cronquist in 1968 and was based on flowering plants.
• **Melchior System: It is also known as Engler or modern sytem classification and consist of taxonomic classification of Angiospermae.

Advancement in Plant Taxonomy system

Numerous methods have been developed to identify genetic materials since the development of molecular biology. This has enabled us to compare individuals across taxonomic levels and overcome classification challenges in the absence of fossil data.

1. **Numerical Taxonomy: This done using machines and computers. Some numbers and code are provided to each corrector.
2. **Chemotaxonomy: In this plant nucleic acid and its other constituents have been used to identify the taxonomic characteristics.
3. **Cytotaxonomy: In this chromosomal number, shape and size which are cytological charcters used to determine taxonomy.

Importance of Plant Taxonomy

Imporatnce of Plant Taxonomy are given below:

• It provides a thorough summary of the many morphological and anatomical features of a species of plant.
• It arranges all of the plant data in a systematic way.
• It shows the evolutionary link between a species and its progenitor.
• It allows to identify the unknown species pf plant by comparing it with known species.
• Every species may be named scientifically with its usage, promoting global name consistency and preventing misunderstandings.
• Understanding the biodiversity that exists there is beneficial. It assists in cataloguing every known live species. Agriculture, health, and forestry all make extensive use of taxonomy.

**Also Read:

• Animal Kingdom
• Taxonomy Main Page
• Botany
• Scientific Name of Tea Plant (Camellia sinensis)