[pbs] Plant Families, Wiki
Joe Shaw
jshaw at opuntiads.com
Tue Nov 7 22:20:23 EST 2006
Susan Hayek, Linda Foulis, and I have started a project to do wiki pages for
at least some of the Families of the genera represented on the wiki and are
making sure that each genus page has a family listed for it.
++++++++++++++
Hi Gang,
I think Mary Sue's idea is a great idea, putting plant family information on
the PBS Web site. I like the AGP II scheme, but I'm pretty sure that
when/if AGP III gets published there will be more changes from that group.
So, there is nothing to do but ride the waves and make changes later; pick a
scheme or combination of approaches and run with it.
It is not too popular and certainly has a ways to go before it is generally
useful, but I guess I'm attacted to the Phylocode approach, at least as a
future possibility. Phylocode is an ambitious attempt to supercede
Linnean-style taxonomy. As such, Phylocode has been embraced by some, but
damned by many. Phylocode is a set of rules for naming clades and does not
make use of orders, families, and genera, etc.
Of course, one very important and exceedingly tricky bit inherent in
Phylocode resides in properly identifying clades. So, for the time being, I
think a PBS approach to helping us all understand bulb/geophyte families is
a wonderful endevour.
One last thought for Mary Sue I., Susan H., and Linda F., go ahead and get
something up (anything) on the WWW and then you will surely get comments
that you can use or ignore to help clarify plant families.
Cordially,
Joe
Conroe, TX
Crinum moorei bloomed last week and C. x 'Stars and Stripes' is blooming now
(early November).
LINK: Phylocode Information, International Code of Phylogenetic
Nomenclature
http://www.ohiou.edu/phylocode/
LINK: Wikipedia, Phylocode
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhyloCode
LINK: Wikiepedia, Clades
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clade
LINK: Wikipedia, Cladistics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladistics
LINK: New Scientist Article, Phylocode
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6369
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