Kingdom Plantae • Includes 300 000 - 315 000 species (2010) • Seed plants - 260 000 - 290 000 species • Appearance - 450 mya - silurian period • Origin - from Green algae (Phylum Charophyta)
Precursors of land plants - green algae from Phylum Charophyta: 1. Genus Chara 2. Genus Lychnothamnus 3. Genus Nitella Basic similarities between green algae and vascular plants : • contain chlorophyll A &B • Store food - starch • Cellulose cell wall • Life cycle - alternation of generations - sexual (gametophyte) with asexual (sporophyte)
Problems, associated with plants exit on the land: • overcoming gravity - root development, mechanical tissues, cellulose cell wall, turgor pressure • overcoming water loss (evaporation) in dry environment - dermal tissue development, and over dermal layers are formed - waxes, cuticle • continuous growth and striving to light - meristematic tissue development and plant hormones • Reproduction depends on the aquatic environment - preserved in simpler in structure groups, higher groups are independent on fertilization from the aquatic environment
Land plants - distinctive features: • Multicellular • Autotrophic • Chlorophyll containing • Cellulose cell wall • Store food - polysaccharides
Two main groups - based on the presence or absence of conductive tissues: I. Nonvascular plants (Bryophytes): • Liverworts • Hornworts • Mosses II. Vascular plants (Tracheophytes): - Seedless (Spore bearing) plants: Lycophytes: Clubmosses, Quillworts & Spike Mosses Pterophytes: Whisk ferns, Horsetails & Ferns - Seed Plants: Gymnosperms & Angiosperms
History of systematics
Prehistoric botany- divided plants into groups according to their practical relevance: • for food • medicinal • poisonous
Ancient (300 BC - 100 AD) Pre-Renaissance Natural History (1000-1400 AD) Herbalism and medical atlases (1400- 1600 AD) Encyclopedic period (1550-1800 AD) Followers “Natural System” (1800 - until now) - Pre- & Post Darwinism Ancient period (300 BC - 100 AD)
Ancient Egypt - artefacts for herbal medicine were found in: • Ebers papyrus (1550 ВС) • Kahun Gyneological papyrus (1800 BC) • Edwin Smith papyrus (1600 BC) • Hearst papyrus (1600 BC) • Brugsch papyrus (1300 BC) • London Medical papyrus (1300 BC)
Ancient Greece : Aristotle (384 - 322 ВС)
• ancient Greek philosopher • a student of Plato • a teacher of Alexander of Macedonia • creates first classification system & separate groups of: Vertebrates and Invertebrates Viviparous & egg-laying Organisms without blood & blood-organisms Insects, crustaceans and mollusks Modern analysts from 19th century determine Aristotle’s “Scala naturae“ as: • One of the most remarkable hierarchical systems, contemporary in style. • his efforts to reflect the relationships between living organisms - something extraordinary and uncommonly for that time • His achievments put him before Linnaeus
Theophrastus - “Father” of Botany •worked in the 4th century BC in Greece •created more than (200+) botanical publications: “Enquiry into Plants” (10 volumes), “The Causes of Plants”, “Logical Division” •classified more than ( >) 500 species •separated plants into groups - according to their size, type of germination, practical benefits - extraction of juice, resins, essential oils •described 4 main categories: trees, shrubs, subshrubs, and Theophrastaceae Family grasses, which correspond with biological types today Species - cultivated & wild Described flower parts in detail - petals, sepals, stamens & pistil, superior vs inferior ovary Participated in the campaigns of Alexander of Macedonia and described many Asian species, used today as spices or related to religion:
Gossypium hirsutum
Piper nigrum
Cinnamomum zeylanicum
Ficus benghalensis Dioskorid (40 - 90 АD) • As a Greek pharmaco - botanist, traveling with the military forces of the Roman emperor Nero, studied the characteristics of many plants and minerals, their distribution, and medicinal properties. • created the herbal: “De Materia Medica “, used more than 1000 years after that (the most famous copy of the book dated from 16 century and is stored in Vienna) • described ± 600 species and their medicinal uses • described some modern families: • Lamiaceae - The Mint family • Apiaceae - The Parsley family • Fabaceae - The Pea family
Dioscoreaceae Family Title page from Pedianos Dioscorides (ca. 40 - ca. 90 C.E.) - [De materia medica] Venice: A. and A. Soceri, 1518 Pliny (23-79 AD) - «Father» of the botanical Latin •worked in many areas of ancient knowledge - botany, zoology, astronomy, geology, mineralogy, psychology, pharmaceutics, mining, civil engineering, agronomy, art history - architecture, sculpture, painting, jewelry •wrote many books - about 37 volumes, but only one survived - Encyclopedia „Naturalis historia“ • described many plant species with their Latin names. • died in Pompeii in time of eruption of the volcano Vesuvius • from his time come species Populus alba & P. nigra.
"C. Plinii secundi naturalis historiae liber secundus . . " Illuminated text page from Gaius Pliny the Elder (23-79 C.E.) [Historia naturalis] Venice: R. de Novimagio, 1483
By materials on : The New York Botanical Garden - The Lu Esther T. Mertz Library Middle Ages “Codex Juliana” - beauty copy of “Materia Medica” (published by Arnica Juliana - a Roman imperial princess, daughter of the Western Roman Emperor Olybrius (400-500 AD)
!!!! At least one woman in field of botany!!!!!
Julianaceae Family Amphipterigium adstringens - Cuachalalate Pre-Renaissance Natural History (1000-1400 AD) Albert Magnus • worked in the 13th century AD; Germany • main work “De Vegetabilis” • described many plant species - modified the system of Theophrastus • separated plants into groups of Higher and Lower plants • introduced concepts Monocots vs Dicots
Herbalism and medical atlases (1400-1600 AD) - Period of healers and herbs Among scientists quickly spread “Doctrine of signatures” whereby: • everything on Earth is of divine origin • plants have medicinal properties • doctrine is spreading not only in Renaissance Europe, but also in China and America and is used today in the Far East • based on similarity between plant parts and human organs - so every part of a plant, which resembles the corresponding human body can cure it:
• Yellow and sweet - treat spleen; • Red and bitter - treat heart; • Green and sour - treat liver; • Black and salty - treat lungs.
Panax ginseng
Thereby legume treat kidney, and walnut - the brain. Carrot is connected with eyes and eyesight, and celery - with bones Avocado - with uterus and female genitalia, and fig - with semen. Mushrooms are rich of vitamin D and are useful in hearing damages, ginger resembles to the human stomach and is known to assist in problems with motility. The sweet potato is with pancreas shape and treats problems, associated with it; the grape is useful for lungs, and olive - for female reproductive system and ovaries. Herbalism and medical atlases (1400- 1600 AD) This is the period : • of searching and describing of new species and habitats • development of botanical terminology • definitions become more accurate, and paintings - more realistic This is the era of the great geographical discoveries: • in Europe - are written numerous books, including herbals • work host of botanists - Brunfels, Bock, Fuchs, Turner, L̉obel, Gerard, Lè Cluse. • Linnaeus named species in their honor - Brunfelsia, Mattiolia, Turnera, Lobelia, Gerardia, Fuchsia • Issued literature - no great contribution to systematics - copy Theophrastus and Dioscorides • Printed works - illustrated with intricate carvings as illustrations.
John Gerard's “The Herball” , or “General histories of plants”, published first in London in 1597, was one of the period's most popular herbals, its information made readily accessible with around 2000 woodcut illustrations and English-language text. Title page of Illustrated herbal book, Contrafayt Kreuterbuch, by Otho Brunfels, 1489 - 1534, woodcut by Hans Weidnitz, "Of cucumbers and suche" Illustration of Delphinium Anonymous copy after Albrecht Meyer peregrinum on “Flora Graeca” от Woodcut from William Turner John Sibthorp & Ferdinand Bauer (1510/1515-1568) - “ A New Herball”, (1806 -1840) Wherein are Contained the Names of Herbes . . . with Properties, Degrees and Naturall Places Encyclopedic period (1550-1800 AD) That period characterized by: • original, on high level botanical knowledge • improvement of optical equipment • detailed observation of plant subjects • accumulation of knowledge and collections of new species • gradually shifting the emphasis from medical properties to the taxonomic aspect of species
Caesalpino (1519 -1603) – «First taxonomist»
• the main work - “De plantis libri“ (1583 ) • Created the first scientific classification of Flowering plants • described 1500 species - classified by external habits, fruit type and seed type • created first herbarium • described Brassicaceae Family & Asteraceae Family
Fabaceae Family Subfamily Caesalpinioideae - includes 150 species Genus Caesalpinia
Johann & Сaspar Bauhin (1623) - “Pinax Theatri Botanici” • described 6 000 species by synonyms - until then species had different names in different books • brought order in the botanical world - first used binomial nomenclature • Introduced basic taxonomic categories - Genus & Species
John Ray (1627 – 1705) - «Methodus Plantarum Nova» • made an attempt to describe all existing organisms so far • described 1 800 species (500 new), including tree and grass species • used pollynominal nomenclature
Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656 - 1708) - «Institutiones Rei Herbaria” • described 9 000 species and 698 genera • classified species by genera affiliation • denied sex in plants Carl Linnaeus (1707 -1778)
Carolus Linnaeus Genus Linnaea Carl von Linne Swedish scientist and naturalist son of a Lutheran priest studied medicine at the University of Lund (1727) took part in 5 months expedition to Lapland received his doctorate title from the University of Hardwicke (1735) became a professor in Uppsala University (1741) thaught 180 students (23 of them became professors) received nobility in 1761 became a president of Uppsala University (1772) died of stroke and memory loss in 1778
Described: 14 000 plant species 158 fish species 1 564 bivalve species 3 198 insect species 3 000 artefacts Wrote: 1600 books
In 1788 the "Linnaeus society" in London is established Contributions of Linnaeus teaching: • includes hierarchical system of all living organisms (and minerals) - „Systema Naturae“ (1735) • introduces sex in plants as a taxonomic mark • puts zoology and botany on scientific foundations - „Historia Naturalis“ • publishes the rules in generic names formation - „Critica botanica“ (1735) • creates the rules for species description and terminology - „Fundamenta botanica“ (1736) & “Philosophia botanica“ (1751) • introduces the concepts - Title page of the 1758 edition of Linnaeus's “ Systema Naturæ” corolla, stamen, filament, anther Creates the Following Group - “Apostles of Linnaeus ” * - underlined have died in expeditions around the world
Anders Sparrman “ Linnaeus Apostles” routes all over the world Main publication: •Genera plantarum (1737) - list of botanical genera •Species plantarum (1753) - global floristic study •Systema naturae (1758) - global fauna exploration
Described: more than 7,700 plant species more than 4,400 animal species
“Genera Plantarum” (1737) Carl von Linné: Title Page.
“Genera Plantarum” (1742) after treatment
Ehret's illustrations, in “Systema Naturae”, showing the characters used to determine Linnaeus's 24 classes of plants. Post - Linnaeus period - Followers “Natural System” (1800 - until now)
France, Germany - “Battle of the names“
Various scientists - Various truths about the world:
• Georges Luise Le̍ Clerc de Buffon - argues that the world must be first described before classified • Michel Adanson - criticized Linnaeus • Antoine Laurence de Jussieu - established the category of "family" between "class" and “genus" • Jean Baptiste de Lamarc - created his own evolutionary theory - “The Lamarckism” • Augustin & Alphons Pyramus de Candolle (Father & son) - species should bear the name of the one, who first discovered and posted - „ The law of priority” •Otto Kuntze (1891-1898) - “Revisio Generum Plantarum ̋ - changed 1,000 generic and 30,000 species names On the Congress in Vienna (1905) were accepted the „International rules of Botanical Nomenclature“: • The law of priority • Binominal nomenclature • Basic Latin language
Binominal nomenclature - Eg.: First name = generic name - Poa Second name = species epithet - Poa bulbosa L. (Linnaeus) = author's name (in case described first by Linnaeus)
Pollynominal nomenclature - Eg.: Sentence with 10 or more words, beginning with generic name: Tradescantia virginiana L. (as binom) = Tradescantia ephemerum phalangoides tripetalum non repens virginianum gramineum (as pollynom) When dealing with organismal models Linnaeus: • followed the natural links between different types of organisms • built the hierarchical system - the essence of taxonomy
Degree of similarity - decreases with the ascent to the top
Main taxonomic categories
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species
19th century
George Bentham (England)
“Genera Plantarum” (1863) • created fullest development pre evolution issue • based on natural laws
Joseph Dalton Hooker (England) Bentham and Hooker's Classification
Charles Darwin (England) - “The Origin of species” (1859)
• Create evolutionism
Evolutionary of man - from the beginning to nowadays The Voyage of the Beagle (1831-1836) “The Origin of species” - different issues Arthur Cronquist (USA) „An Integrated System of Classification of Flowering Plants” (1981) “ The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants “ (1968; 2nd edition, 1988) • divided Angiosperms in two main classes: - Magnoliopsida (Dicots) - Liliopsida (Monocots)
• divided Classes in Subclasses: - Magnoliopsida (in 6 Subclasses) - Lilipsida (in 5 Subclasses)
Cronquist “Balloons” - their volume corresponds to the number of species they contain Armen Takhtajan (Russia) - continues tradition to regionalization of the world flora - six floristic kingdoms (by Ronald Good), 35 floristic regions (by Armen Takhtajan). World Vegetation and Floristics, as illustrated in Conifers Around the World based on Takhtajan (1986) ! Our classification system - based on Cronquist classification system !
EUCARYOTES Kingdom Vegetabilia (Plants) SubkingdomThallophyta - Lower, thallus organisms (Algae, fungi, lichens) Subkingdom Tracheophyta - Higher, vascular plants Division Rhyniophyta - Rhyniophytes (extinct group) Division Psilotophyta - Psilophytes (Whisk-ferns) Division Bryophyta - Mosses Division Lycopodiophyta - Club mosses, Quillworts, Spike mosses Division Equisetophyta - Horsetails Division Polypodiophyta - Ferns Division Pinophyta - Conifers Division Cycadophyta - Cycads Division Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants (Angiosperms) Class Magnoliopsida (Dicotyledons) Subclass Magnoliidae Subclass Hamamelidae Subclass Caryophyllidae Subclass Dillenidae Subclass Rosidae Subclass Asteridae Class Liliopsida (Monocotyledons) Subclass Alismatidae Subclass Liliidae Subclass Arecidae Subclass Commelinidae Subclass Zingiberidae
• until 1980 - the Flowering plants classification - based on features in morphology (flower parts) and biochemical compounds • after 1990 - a large number of genetic researches accumulated and • that lead to creation of • The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, or APG – creates the Angiosperm Phylogeny classification, based on phylogenetic relations between Flowering plants and in that way the group of the Flowering plants is rearranged
• retains categories “Order” and “Family” • groups are created with one ancestor - monophyletic • Removes the categories of the “Order” up
Major clades of the Flowering plants (APG system) The Latin language is not dead - first destroyed the Romans, and now will finish me! (said 400 students, who appeared on a botany exam)
Distribution of vegetation cover on land (NASA photo) - NASA Map sees Earth's Trees in a New Light THE TALLEST TREE in the world • The tallest trees in the world are redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), which tower above the ground in California. These trees can easily reach heights of 300 feet (91 meters). • Among the redwoods, a tree named Hyperion dwarfs them all. The tree was discovered in 2006, and is 379.7 feet (115.7 m) tall. Among redwoods is one of the widest trees in the world - the tree called "General Sherman" is not only the biggest giant sequoia, but it is also the biggest tree in the world. It is 83.8 m (274.9 feet) tall, his girth at breast height is 24,10 m (79 feet) (near the ground it is 31,3 m or 102,6 feet). Sequoia National park - Sierra Nevada, California, USA Walk in “Sequoia National park” - Sierra Nevada, California, USA “Sequoia National park”, Sierra Nevada, California, USA
• established on September 25, 1890 • spans over 404,064 acres • Giant sequoia trees grow at high altitudes between 5,000 to 8,000 feet and occur naturally only in about 65 to 75 disjoint groves with a total area of 36,000 acres. • the oldest trees bear the names of historical figures - "General Sherman", "Washington", "General Grant", „ The President“ • All sequoia trees are protected
Photos of old times Photos of nowadays
Giant sequoia (Sequoia sempervirens) in Stara Zagora (Zagorka lake) The second highest tree - Eucalyptus regnans (Mountain ash) - “Centurion”, hight - 99,8 m, Arve Valley, Tasmania, Australia The third highest tree - Coast Douglas - fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) in Vancouver, British Columbia, 1887 - 126 m in height The stoutest living single-trunk species are:
1. Montezuma Cypress (Taxodium mucronatum) Árbol del Tule, Santa Maria del Tule, Oaxaca, Mexico: heigt - 36 m, d - 38 m, age 1400-1600 years; part of the cultural heritage of UNESCO 2. Baobab (Adansonia digitata) - 10.64 m (34.9 ft), Sunland Baobab, South Africa (In 2009, a task team from the Department of Chemistry, Babes-Bolyai University of Romania, funded by a grant from the Romanian National University Research Council and the US National Science Foundation, estimated the age of the Big Baobab (the Sunland Baobab) to be around 6 000 years). 3. Sequoiadendron giganteum (Giant sequoia) - 29 m girth, Bull Buck, Nelder Grove, USA The oldest known living non-clonal organism
Prometheus (Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) - the oldest known non-clonal organism • 4862 years old and possibly more than 5000 • was cut down in 1964 by a graduate student and United States Forest Service personnel for research purposes • It had been alive before the Egyptian pyramids were built
The stump (lower left) and some remains of the Prometheus tree (center), in the Wheeler Bristlecone Pine Grove at Great Basin National Park near Baker, Nevada
Methuselah - is a 4,847-year-old living bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) tree, growing high in the White Mountains of Inyo County in eastern California; In category “vulnerable” on IUCN Mediterranean cypress (Cupressus sempervirens) - Sarv-e Abarqu, in Abarkuh – the tree was planted around the year 2000 BC ± 100, which makes it about 4016 ± 100 years old The European yew (Taxus baccata) - 2266 ± 300 years old, Hythe End Road, Wraysbury, UK. The tree is often planted near graveyards in Celtic areas (Brittany, England) allowing to reach old age, and is often used in horticulture. Granit, Bulgaria
Pedunculate oak (Quercus robur) - Granit oak, age 1700 years, Granit village, Bulgaria Olive tree (Olea europaea) - age 2850 years, Loures, Lisboa, Portugal Oriental plane (Platanus orientalis) - 680 years old, Bedechka river, Stara Zagora Clonal organisms
Pando - a clonal organism of Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) in Fishlake National Forest, Utah, USA. Covers 107 acres (0.43 km )?? and has about 47,000 stems (130 years average age), which continually die and are renewed by its roots. It is also the heaviest known organism, weighing 6,000 tons. King Clone - the 11,700-year-old creosote bush ring (Larrea tridentata - Zygophyllaceae) in the Mojave Desert The Jurupa Oak is a clonal colony of Quercus palmeri (Palmer's oak) trees in Riverside County, southern California. The colony has survived an estimated 13,000 years through clonal reproduction, following burning in wildfires The Great Banyan - a banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis, Moraceae Family), located in Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden, Howrah, India - a clonal colony of 3772 aerial roots on an area of 1,5 ha, 250 years old. Banyan roots - one of the main components of Indiana Jones movies Petrified Forest National Park - Arizona, USA Fossils before 225 mya ago How Petrified Wood Was Formed? When trees were toppled by volcanic eruptions, they were swept away by flowing water and deposited in marshes and covered with mud and volcanic ashes. Buried under layers of sediment, the logs remained buried for millions and millions of years undergoing an extremely slow process of petrification which essentially turned the logs to colorful stone.
The area was covered with an ocean covering the logs with even more sediment. About 60 million years ago the ocean disappeared and was replaced with flowing rivers that gradually eroded over 2,600 feet of sediment depth slowly exposing the petrified wood that littered the landscape at the Petrified Forest National Park. There is no doubt that Triassic Arizona millions of pounds of petrified logs still remain buried deep into the ground. Rainbow Wood Eventually gradual and continuing erosion will expose even more stone logs that are still entombed.
The petrification process began with tree burial. The volcanic ashes and mud released chemicals during decomposition. The chemicals reacted with wood to form quartz crystals which by themselves are colorless. Minerals in the water such as iron or manganese gave the quartz red and pinkish hues. Over millions of years, the quartz crystals "cocooned" the logs slowly turning them to stone. Petrified woody stems Trace elements in “Rainbow wood” Good luck to you!!!