1.5: Systematics
- Page ID
- 73736
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How can we best conserve plant biodiversity? Systematics, a combination of taxonomy and phylogenetics, is critically important in plant biology. It helps us to categorize plants and understand natural diversity. Each plant species has a common name and a scientific name. Scientific names are in Latin and binomial, as follows:
| Common name: | Pea |
| Scientific name: | Pisum sativum |
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Class: | Dicot |
| Varieties: | garden peas, snow peas, snap peas |
Systematics uses cladograms (mostly morphological characteristics) and phylogenetic trees (morphological plus genetic characteristics). Phylogenetic trees (a.k.a., evolutionary trees) are used in comparing plant species in evolutionary time and distance. Finally, two plant species are considered more related if the phylogenetic tree shows a more recent ancestor.
- SLO 05.01: Apply the best practices for learning systematics
- SLO 05.02: Explain binomial system
- SLO 05.03: Distinguish between phylogenetic trees and cladograms
- SLO 05.04: Distinguish between homologous vs analogous characters
- SLO 05.05: Identify given plant species with their scientific names based on their key features
- SLO 05.06: Explain the differences between ancestral and derived features
- SLO 05.07: Diagram a typical plant cladogram
- Assessment 05.3.1: TRUE or FALSE: Carl Linnaeus first proposed the systematics.
- Assessment 05.3.2: TRUE or FALSE: Clades arose before are named “basal”.
- Assessment 05.3.3: Provide similarities between cladogram and phylogenetic tree.
- Assessment 05.3.4: List specific characteristics of model plant Arabidopsis thaliana for plant biology.
- TRUE
- TRUE
- They are used interchangeably. While phylogenetic tree’s branch length may be considered important indicator of time / change, cladograms missing this
- Short generation time. Small genome and mapping completed. Availability of many variants. Easy to grow in the lab