This list of systems of plant taxonomy presents "taxonomic systems" used in plant classification.
A taxonomic system is a coherent whole of taxonomic judgments on circumscription and placement of the considered taxa. It is only a "system" if it is applied to a large group of such taxa (for example, all the flowering plants).
There are two main criteria for this list. A system must be taxonomic, that is deal with many plants, by their botanical names. Secondly it must be a system, i.e. deal with the relationships of plants. Although thinking about relationships of plants had started much earlier (see history of plant systematics), such systems really only came into being in the 19th century, as a result of an ever-increasing influx from all over the world of newly discovered plant species. The 18th century saw some early systems, which are perhaps precursors rather than full taxonomic systems.
A milestone event was the publication of Species Plantarum by Linnaeus which serves as the starting point of binomial nomenclature for plants, but it does not deal with relationships, beyond assigning plants into genera.
Systems are not necessarily monolithic; they often go through several stages of development, resulting in several versions. When a system is widely adopted, many authors adopt their own particular version. The Cronquist system exists in many versions.
Chronological list of systems
Pre-Linnaean
Theophrastus classification Historia Plantarum (Enquiry into Plants), c. 300 BC Causes of Plants, c. 300 BC Dioscorides classification De Materia Medica, c. 60 AD Albertus Magnus classification De Vegetabilibus, c. 1256 Caesalpino classification De plantis libri XVI, 1583 John Gerard classification Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes, 1597 Gaspard Bauhin classification Pinax theatri botanici, 1623 John Ray classification Historia Plantarum, 1686–1704 Tournefort classification Éléments de botanique, 1694
From Linnaeus to Darwin (pre-Darwinian)
Linnaean systems Systema Naturae, 1st edition, 1735. Systema Naturae, 10th edition, 1758 (vol. 1), 1759 (vol. 2). Starting point of zoological nomenclature. Species Plantarum, 1753. Starting point of botanical nomenclature. Genera Plantarum, 1737 (1st ed.), 1753 (5th ed.). Philosophia Botanica, 1751. Adanson system Familles naturelles des plantes, 1763. de Jussieu system
(available online at Gallica) de Candolle system A. P. de Candolle (1819). Théorie Élémentaire de la botanique, ou exposition des principes de la classification naturelle et de l'art de décrire et d'etudier les végétaux (2nd ed.).
(available online at Gallica) Berchtold and Presl system Berchtold and Presl. O Prirozenosti Rostlin 1820 Dumortier system
Lindley system
(available online at BHL)
(available online at BHL) Bentham & Hooker system
(available online at Gallica) Baillon system
Post Darwinian (Phyletic)
Eichler system
Van Tieghem system
Engler system
Dalla Torre & Harms system
Bessey system Charles E. Bessey (1907). "A Synopsis of Plant Phyla". Univ. Nebraska Studies 7: 275–358.
Wettstein system
Rendle system Alfred Barton Rendle. The Classification of Flowering Plants 1904, 1925 Lotsy system Johannes Paulus Lotsy. Vorträge über botanische Stammesgeschichte, gehalten an der Reichsuniversität zu Leiden. Ein Lehrbuch der Pflanzensystematik. 1907–1911 Hallier system
Warming system
Hutchinson system
Calestani system
Kimura system
Benson system Lyman David Benson. Plant Classification 1957 Emberger system
Melchior system (also known as modified Engler system, in Angiospermae) Takhtajan system
Cronquist system
Thorne system
Stebbins system Stebbins, G.L. (1974). Flowering plants: evolution above the species level. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, . [System followed by Heywood, V.H. (ed., 1978). Flowering plants of the world. Oxford: Oxford University Press, .] Dahlgren system
Goldberg system (available online: Full text (PDF) here) [there is also a comparison among 11 Dicotyledons systems since 1960 until 1985] (available online: Full text (PDF) here) Kubitzki system (1990- )
Shipunov system (1991–) (Available online: ) Reveal system (1997) Reveal System of Classification 1997 Judd system (1999–2016) (Modified APG)
APG system APG I (1998)
APG II (2003)
(Available online: Abstract | Full text (HTML) | Full text (PDF)) APG III (2009)
(Available online: ) Chase & Reveal System (2009)
(Available online at doi link.) APG IV (2016)
Other systems Bartling system () Deyl system Endlicher system () Fritsch system (algae, ) Gundersen system Hallier system Hoek, Mann and Jahns system (algae) Mez system Novák system () Pascher system (algae, ) Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group system Pulle system Rafinesque system () Rouleau system Smith system (cryptogams – algae, fungi, bryophytes and pteridophytes) Skottsberg system Soó system Strasburguer system () Tippo system
References
External links
Minelli, Alessandro (1993). Biological Systematics. The State of the Art. Chapman & Hall, London. 387 pp. Appendices 2–23, with major systematic works. Review of systems 1703–1845, in Lindley, John (1846): The Vegetable Kingdom Rao M. M., Reddy, S.M. (2007), Plant Taxonomy: Systems of Classification, in Reddy S. M. et al. (eds.) University Botany – 3, New Age International, pp. 7–32
Bibliography