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  • From: "John Schinnerer" <john@eco-living.net>
  • To: "Permaculture Plant DB project" <pcplantdb@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [pcplantdb] plant taxonomy and usefulness
  • Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 10:44:33 -1000 (HST)

Aloha,

>> In the DB they will be essentially useless to me, unless the DB provides
>> an understanding of why these distinctions and relations matter and how
>> they are useful to me in designing with plants.
>>
> Time for some homework?

If it proves useful, sure; my question is about the usefulness of existing
systems of plant taxonomy to the "average" user of our DB.

I doubt the usefulness of our DB for "most" users if they have to learn
existing plant taxonomy systems before they can find our DB useful.

> Heres some examples where this stuff enhances our understanding of the
> plants.
>
> Families: for instance take the Rose family Rosaceae.
> This includesa Apples, Pears, Hawthorns, Roses, look at the fruit of
> many of these and I think you would see some simalirities in terms
> of the structure of the fruit.

So far, not too practically useful to me. What use is similarities in
structure of fruit for its own sake?
I want to know if it's edible or poisonous, sweet or tart, nutritious and
if so in what ways, prolific or sparse and if it will do well in my
climate and soil conditions.
Also what it's PC-relevant functions are - inputs, outputs, guild
attributes and so on.

Now this:

> The rose fammily is particularly well
> endowered with good fruit breaing plants, so if you are looking for a
> novel fruit crop then consider a member of this family.

...is more useful in a practical way.
And, I want to get this direct from the DB without having to learn plant
taxonomy first.

> Genus: generally closer relationships than family, if its an apple then
> its a malus. The Prunus genus contains at first sight qrite distinct
> plants (Almond, Apricot, Cherry, Damson,
> Nectarine, Sloe, Peach, Plum) but think about it a bit closer
> and they are all plants with a big stone or pip.

That portion of the info seems relatively non-useful (except if I know it
and recognize a Prunus genus member I'll know to bite carefully so as not
to break a tooth :-o).

> One very important
> factor of this genus is that they often contain hydrogen cyanide
> which gives the distinctive flavor of almonds. This is important
> knowledge as if you come across a plant in this genus then you know that
> you should beware!

...and that portion of the info is more practically useful.
Although almonds are not deadly to humans...and as for being beware of a
genus based on some such general property, lots of people eat tons of
nightshades...so as a generalization I'm not sure how useful it is either.

> Higher order clasifications can be useful, the monocot/dicot distinction
> (depends on whether the plant has one or two seed leaves when it first
> germinates) is an interesting one. Monocots include grasses,
> onions (allium), lilies and orchids. To my mind there is some similarity
> between all of these plants, although I can't quite put my finger on
> it.

What are some practical applications of the monocot/dicot distinction
relevant to permaculture design?




John Schinnerer - MA, Whole Systems Design
------------------------------------------
- Eco-Living -
Whole Systems Design Services
People - Place - Learning - Integration
john@eco-living.net
http://eco-living.net






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