Plant families

Plant families

The world of botany is a wonderful world in which a huge variety of plant species. To date, more than 300,000 plant species have been described in the world, and many more are discovered each year and described as new to science.

Most of the new plant species are found in the tropics, these areas are particularly rich and some of them have not yet been researched. However, new species are also discovered in our region.

The multiplicity of plant names causes us great distress; “Who invented all these terrible names?” Are not uncommon. However, those who look a little more objectively will understand that there are many ornamental plants and wild plants. Every plant has a name and it is very difficult to remember them all. Plant names are a language in which we can describe a particular plant; And it’s true that some of the names are long and unpleasant to the ear..

The systematics, which deals with the classification of plants, is a difficult field to understand. But it distributes the plants into several hierarchical categories (taxonomic levels) that allow us to orient and swim in the “sea” of the various plants. This time we will sharpen and explain the taxonomic levels that are most useful to gardeners and nature enthusiasts, and we will focus especially on the issue of plant families.

The most fundamental and most important taxonomic level is the species level (species)

Sex is a group of organisms, similar to one another, that can mate and produce fertile offspring. The great importance in the sex category is that its definition also includes reproductive significance – that is, individuals of type A can not mate and produce fertile offspring with type B individuals. For example, species of the Iris branch are not corrosive with details of the German Iris species. Sometimes different species are hybridized under artificial conditions, but the offspring of these hybrids are not fertile.

Below the species level are species and sub-species. Subspecies and species usually give us information about plant traits, for example variegata, pink subspecies (ssp. Rosea). Individuals of the same sex, but of a different subtype or species, are characterized by certain traits, but they are also corrosive and produce fertile offspring.

The subspecies usually refer to populations of a particular geographical area, such as the daffodil (Marcissus tazetta ssp. Aureus), which is common in the western Mediterranean basin and is characterized by completely yellow flowers. Details of this subspecies differ from the color of the flowers. Narcissus tazetta ssp. Tazetta,

Varieties generally have no geographical significance. Different species of the same species often grow in the same place, for example the different color species of the anemone coronaria that grow together in the north of the country. A species described in nature is written with the word var. For example, anemone coronaria var. On the other hand, cultivars are written in a capital letter without the word var. For example, Barzilai is very diverse (Metrosideros kermadecensis Variegata).

So far we have interpreted the plant species including the lower categories (subspecies and species). But we should also know the types of plants and families. Species with many common properties are generally associated with the species; And those with shared attributes are associated with families with shared attributes. If we recognize these qualities we will know a great deal about all species belonging to one family or another. For example, the Pinaceae family includes trees and shrubs, conifers, female cones and male male blossoms. This family is named after one of its associated species – Pinus, which has many species, such as Pinus halepensis and Pinus pinea.

As in the pine family, most plant families are named after their respective species, but several families were named by other names. Today it is customary to change the names of these families to names based on the name of one of the types. Examples: The lipid family was previously called Labiatae, which means lipid, but recently the surname was changed to Lamiaceae after the name Lamium associated with this family; The name of the Gramineae cereal family was changed to Poaceae in the name of the genus Pseudomonas Poa; The name of the Umbelliferae family was changed to Apiaceae in the name of the genus Apium; The cruciferous name Cruciferae was changed to Brassicaceae after the Brassica cabbage type.

These changes are sometimes confusing and they are not the only ones. In recent years, thanks to progressive molecular genetic research, several families are sometimes united into one family. Or one family split into new families. Thus suddenly we find that a species belonging to a particular family is suddenly associated with another family.

For example, Hoya bella was associated with the Asclepiadaceae family. The Hasklavim family was recently united under the family of the Apocynaceae. Therefore, all species of the Haskalfim family in the past, including the Batsheva species, are now associated with the family of the Ordefans.

The Liliaceae family once contained a large number of species and species, many of them beautiful garden flowers. Today, it is common to divide the lilies into a number of families – the Shoshani family remains with the lily, tulip, tulip and zehavit types; Hyacinthaceae contains hybrids, hyacinth, hyacinth, hawk, and more; The Alliaceae family contains the garlic, agapanthus and other species; The Colchicaceae family contains the saffron and cilia varieties; And so on.

One of the most famous debates among botanists is whether to include all the legumes in the Leguminosae family or to divide this family into three families – the Papilionaceae family, which includes the thurmus, wisteria, The coronal family (Caesalpiniaceae) containing the carob, the chlorine, the bohinia, and more; And the Mimosaceae family, which contains the method, the Alabitzia and more; And if that is not enough, called Fabaceae is sometimes used for the family of the kidneys and sometimes for the family of the butterfly.

This forum, of course, will not solve systemic (sometimes personal-political) problems that arise among the various researchers. Nor is the intention here to frighten the audience of the reader