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Classification: systems and philosophies

The first classification systems for plants relied on visible and measurable characteristics. They were often somewhat artificial, though easy to apply for identification purposes. Later systems aimed to be more natural, reflecting plant evolution, and this has been made more scientific by comparison of molecules such as DNA. Unfortunately however, plant evolution has been so complex that a fully natural system may be more difficult to apply for identification purposes, not least because our concepts of species, genera and other ranks may themselves be rather unnatural.

Available molecular trees Ní Chonghaile et al.   Temperate bamboo combined tree from Dublin & Kew Guo et al.                 Temperate bamboo trees from China Clark et al.                 Example online molecular tree from Treebase

Phenetic classifications have traditionally been applied in the descriptions produced for flora treatments. Molecular analyses are usually expressed in trees known as cladograms, and results are not necessarily incorporated into the naming, description, or identification of plants. Opinions differ as to how much molecular data is relevant or useful. Trees from recent molecular research on bamboo phylogeny are presented on this site, from work in the British Isles and China. Such trees are being incorporated into Treebase, an online database, but it currently has very few trees that include bamboos (currently from only 1 study with more than a token bamboo, example below). Further trees will no doubt be added to Treebase, and it can be searched, although the exact name of a species included or the author of the study must first be known, and the ‘tree surf’ facility may be easier to use.    ... More