Family Problems

Discussion in 'Plants: Nomenclature and Taxonomy' started by BKMayer, Jul 29, 2015.

  1. BKMayer

    BKMayer New Member

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    Howdy ya'll!

    I currently working on a project breaking down proportions for certain defining characteristics for each family in angiosperms. For example, I'll look at the families in Caryophyllales and assess the varying proportions of tropical to temperate species for climate distribution. My problem is finding trustworthy sources for accurate genera lists for each family. I'm using Kubitzki's The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants at the moment, but I'm running into discrepancies with listed genera in older volumes. Any help would be most appreciative!!!!

    And sorry if my writing is confusing. I'm working on only a few hours of sleep...
     
  2. bjo

    bjo Active Member 10 Years

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  3. Andrey Zharkikh

    Andrey Zharkikh Well-Known Member 10 Years

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  4. BKMayer

    BKMayer New Member

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    Thanks for the reply Brian!

    I've looked into Theplantlist a bit, and I'm started to compare their accepted genera and what kubitzki listed. Would you consider that a pretty concrete source when it comes to accepted genera?
     
  5. bjo

    bjo Active Member 10 Years

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    Hi,

    Kubitzki's 'The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants' is a fantastic resource, but as you have found is sometimes not up to date with recent research (especially genetic research) and thinking. The Plant List being an online resource can be updated - i think that the current data set is from 2012 and it is managed by top-level plant taxonomists. It is based on the angiosperm phylogeny group III classification of 2009 which is considered the gold standard. If you go to the 'about' page, you will see the depth and width of resources that underlie the list:

    http://www.theplantlist.org/1.1/about/

    You could criticise it for not being continually but only periodically updated. However in some way this is an advantage as you can set a definite reference date for use in your study.

    Andrey's recommendations are all excellent, but note that the coverage of the USDA list is limited to the US and its territories.

    In my view, The Plant List is the authoritative source.
    Good luck with your study,
    Brian
     

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