Classification of Plants

Classification of Plants

Imagine walking into a library and looking for a Harry Potter story book. As you walk into the library you notice that it is under renovation and all the books are scattered. Will it not be hard to find the exact book you are looking for? It might take hours. So you decide to come the next day when all the books are arranged according to the genres. One rack for adventure, another for Detective, Fantasy, Horror, Encyclopaedia and so on. You automatically know Harry Potter is in the fantasy section and it takes less than ten minutes for you to find it. That is because the books have been classified and arranged according to a system.

Similarly there is a vast assemblage of group of plants in the world. Is it possible to study and understand all of these? No. Since it is difficult to study all these plants together, it is necessary to device some means to make this possible.

Classification is essential to biology because there is a vast diversity of organisms to sort out and compare. Unless they are organized into manageable categories it will be difficult for identification. Biological classifications are the inventions of biologists based upon the best evidence available. The scientific basis for cataloguing and retrieving information about the tremendous diversity of flora is known as classification.

Classification paves way for the arrangement of organisms into groups on the basis of their similarities, dissimilarities and relationships. The purpose of classification is to provide a systematic arrangement expressing the relationship between the organisms.

Taxonomists have assigned a method of classifying organisms which are called ranks. These taxonomical ranks are hierarchical. The scheme of classification has to be flexible, allowing newly discovered living organisms to be added where they fit best.

Need for Classification

•            Understanding the classification of organisms can gives an insight in to other fields and has significant practical value.

•            Classification helps us to know about different taxa, their phylogenetic relationship and exact position.

•            It helps to train the students of plant sciences with regard to the diversity of organisms and their relationship with other biological branches.