List of systems of plant taxonomy

A pioneering system of plant taxonomy, Linnaeus's Systema Naturae, Leiden, 1735

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 a large number of 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. By its size this would qualify to be on this list, but it does not deal with relationships, beyond assigning plants into genera.

Note that a system is not necessarily monolithic and often goes through several stages of development, resulting in several versions of the same system. When a system is widely adopted, many authors will adopt their own particular version of the system. The Cronquist system is well known for existing in many versions.

Chronological list of systems

Pre-Linnaean

• See also: Pre-Linnaean taxonomy

  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 [1]

  Caesalpino classification

  De Plantis, 1583

  John Gerard classification

  Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes, 1597

  Gaspard Bauhin cassification

  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

  (available online at Gallica)

• Lindley system

  (available online at BHL)

  (available online at BHL)

• Bentham & Hooker system

  (available online at Gallica)

• Baillon system

Post Darwinian (Phyletic)

See also: Phylogenetic Systems

• 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

• Benson system

  Lyman David Benson. Plant Classification 1957

• Hutchinson system

• Hallier system

• Warming system

• Calestani system

• Kimura system

• Emberger system

• Melchior system

  (also known as modified Engler system, in Angiospermae)

• Takhtajan system

• Cronquist 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)

• Dahlgren system

• Thorne system (1992) (also see, Thorne system, 2000)

• Kubitzki system (1990- )

• Reveal system (1999)

  Reveal System of Classification 1999

• Judd system (1999-2008)

  (Modified APG)

• APG system

  'APG I' (1998)

  APG II (2003)

  (Available online: Abstract | Full text (HTML) | Full text (PDF))

  APG III (2009)

  (Available online: [2])

• Shipunov system (1991-)

  (Available online: Full text PDF )

Other systems

• Bartling system ([3])
• Deyl system
• Endlicher system ([4])
• Fritsch system (algae, [5])
• Gundersen system
• Hallier system
• Hoek, Mann and Jahns system (algae)
• Mez system
• Novák system
• Pascher system (algae, [6])
• Pulle system
• Rafinesque system ([7])
• Rouleau system
• Smith system (cryptogams - algae, fungi, bryophytes and pteridophytes)
• Skottsberg system
• Soó system
• Stebbins system
• Strasburguer system ([8])
• Tippo system
• van Tieghem system

External links

• List of systems on a Russian server, by Alexey Shipunov
• 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, ISBN 978-81-224-1547-6