TOOP=Taxonomy Of Ornamental Plants Version: 11.30.2019 This is a pre-release PDF copy for review purposes only. You may distribute among interested parties if and only if they agree to send comments to the author: [email protected] , subject line containing TOOP The first available public version will be offered from www.cultivar.org at no cost beginning in January 2020 but a subscription program will be available for updated, larger versions of the work that are produced over time. It will never be finished. Never. Well maybe it might be done when I'm accessioned with a granate label in plot 99-SD of a peaceful arboretum-like place. In the next thirty years or so (Our Dear Lord willing) I am adding to this website/ebook as often as my hort0botanical muse that looks a lot like Liberty Hyde Bailey whispers. I'm a frightfully weak, lazy, and inept imitation of LHB (though a bit smarter from trolling his Cornell Pinetum and vouchers) so he needs to shout now and again. All this will be hopefully with some corrections and additions by the readers over the coming years. My biometric studies of cultivars continue with new data and analyses coming. Websites and ebooks cost nothing but time and effort to update so let's take advantage of that. This work is a spin-off and ultimate maturation of T-LAN (Taxonomy of Landscape Plants) I wrote and curated as a website from 1999 onward but this is more academic and detailed in focus with lots more plates and examples. That had a good following and many reader additions and comments. Much of it was eventually put into Hatch's Perennials and Cultivars of Woody Plants for reference there under individual taxa. In fact, Cultivar.org as we see it today was originally prototyped under the code name TLAN2. If you find anything useful please use the following type of citation: Hatch, L.C. [publication year]. Taxonomy of Ornamental Plants. Cultivar.org publisher, Cary, North Carolina, Version Date, [link to page] or http://cultivar.org While on the topic of literature citations I have gone with the Harvard format provided by Google Scholar in most references below. Links are sometimes put in a small font to avoid the page being 20 inches wide and therefore hard to read in any known format. In a few cases you will see Link Reduced because the URL could not be sized to a readable, small font. Types of taxonomists: a million specialities. Let's talk about taxonomy in general and present a broader hierarchy of what it means to be a taxonomist in modern times. It took me decades to figure out who was whom and the various roles in both biological and non-biological fields. Your comments and suggestions are welcome as this is not a clear cut or universally accepted set of divisions. Taxonomist - a person who classifies, groups, organizes, measures, establishes relationships among units, determines origins, and names a specific, defined collection of objects or entities. Biological taxonomist (systematist, taxonomer) - one who works with living organisms or biological species. Within most of the following disciplines there are experts who emphasize classification with chemistry (chemistry), morphology/biometrics, and DNA. Insect taxomomist (entotaxonomist) - those working with insects. They often specialize in groups such as arachnids, beetles, flies, centipedes, butterflies/moths, and such. Fungal taxonomist - those working with fungal species Ornithological taxonomist - those working exclusively with birds. Plant taxonomist (phytotaxonomist) - dealing only in the Plant Kingdom Botanical taxonomist - dealing with native, non-cultivated taxa, that is wild plants or occasionally naturalized ones that have escaped. There are many specialists from the family to the subgenus levels. Legume taxonomists and orchid taxonomists are obvious and some never work outside those groups their entire careers. Their approaches range from traditional morphology (phytomorphologist, biometrician) to embryology (phytoembryologist) to cells (cytologist, cytogenecist) to elaborate DNA sequencing (phytogeneticist) and sometimes combinations of several techniquies. Poison plant taxonomist - this is a very important role for herbaria and botanists in general. The very life of humans and animals, all precious and valuable, may come down to analyzing a leaf fragment taking from stomach samples. Do the doctors or vets treat this way or another? The identification of toxic plants is a major and very crucial field. Paleobotanical taxonomist - working with prehistoric, usually extinct species of plants in genera that are current and sometimes lost forever. A general paleotaxonomist or paleobiologist may also deal with animals and microbes. Nomenclaturist - one dealing mainly with names and naming convention, selecting the best nomenclature and publishing it in Latin if necessary. Mastering the nomenclature codes, both botanical and cultivated, are practically a law degree in themselves. Dendrological taxonomist (forest taxonomist) - one working exclusively in woody plants with an emphasis on forest species such as pines, spruce, fir, both cultivated and native taxa. These professionals typically work in the forestry field and not horticulture or plant science. Some experts consider all dendrology to have a taxonomic emphasis while to others it's a much broader field. Some people consider forestry to be part of agriculture and by some definitions it would be. Historically they are different departments or even colleges at many universities and while they learn from the other, the experts do not always mix. Agricultural plant taxonomist - dealing with cultivated plant taxa of interest to agricultural fields. Agronomic taxonomist - dealing with field crops such as corn, wheat, barley, etc. They are often also phytogeneticists and plant breeders because they have come to classify corn, for example, in terms of cytology and specific genes. The taxonomy, genetics, and breeding of field crops is much more unified in one job or role than in many other agricultural fields but things are a'changin in this direction. Horticultural taxonomist - one who works with garden and non-agronomic crops. Cultivar historian - this is a term I came up for my email signature and it about sums up what I do in terms of studying and documenting the origins, names, descriptions, identification, and botanical classification (species affinity, hybrid parentage, variety, subspecies, forma) of cultivated varieties. It can fit under any of the following categories but sometimes spans different groups. I have been known to help out students finding the origins and true details of a fruit or vegetable cultivar too. Not all taxonomists deal in history so this is a definately a subspecialty. Pomological taxonomist (systematic pomologist) - dealing with cultivated fruit taxa including tree, cane, and herbaceous spedcies such as apples, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries Viticultural taxonomist - one dealing exclusively with grape varieties of the genus Vitis Ornamentals taxonomist - one dealing with plants having showy or decorative fruit, flowers, or foliage including landscape plants and floricultural crops. Besides the specialities noted below some get very narrow with specific interested limited mainly to Rosa, Hosta, Iris, Gesneriads, Begonia, Camellia, and Narcissus. We count on these specialized taxonomist to register cultivars with detail, create Cultivar Groups, and classification systems that useful for both taxonomy and flower shows. Floricultural taxonomist House plant taxonomist Ornamental coniferological taxonomist Ornamental dendrotaxonomist Ornamental Geophyte taxonomist Herbaceous Perennial taxonomist Ornamental Cactus and Succulent taxonomist Olericultural taxonomist - one working with vegetable crops, residential and commerical, such as potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, beans, cucumbers, etc. There may be some overlap with the agronomic taxonomist in terms of species like corn, but generally here these are consider edible taxa for humans as opposed to agronomy with covers species edible to both humans and lifestock. Animal taxonomist - working in the Animal Kingdom Zoological taxonomist (zootaxonomist) - dealing with wild, non-domesticated taxa. They often specialize in various classes and orders such mammals, carnivores, whales, fish, horses, canines, rodents, felines, reptiles, amphibians, etc. Even if one is simply a seashell collector, the taxonomy there gets pretty complex and important very quickly as your collection grows. Animal science taxonomist - dealing with domesticated, agricultural, or industrialized animal taxa such as cattle, sheep, goats, swine, horses, dogs, cats. The pedigree of a prized bull, horse, cat, or dog is all about taxonomy and increasing with a more genetic focus. These days we farm raise seafood so that is part of this group too. Forensic taxonomist - dealing with identification and classification of primarily deceased persons or animals, often using biometrics and DNA to determine species, gender, height, weight, ethnicity, age, and so on for purposes of criminal investigation or archeology. Is that a missing person or just an old coyote skeleton? They may work with entomological taxonomists to determine the age and species of insects at the site. Microbial taxonomist - these are often virologists or bacteriologists. Ever get a flu shot or not sure if you cold is really a flu or not? That's all about taxonomy at a very tiny level. Taxonomists decide what flu strains to put into the vaccine each and every year.