Floristic Regions
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Floristic Regions
A phytochorion, in phytogeography, is a geographic area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species. Adjacent phytochoria do not usually have a sharp boundary, but rather a soft one, a transitional area in which many species from both regions overlap. The region of overlap is called a vegetation tension zone. In traditional schemes, areas in phytogeography are classified hierarchically, according to the presence of endemic families, genera or species, e.g., in floral (or floristic, phytogeographic) zones and regions, or also in kingdoms, regions and provinces, sometimes including the categories empire and domain. However, some authors prefer not to rank areas, referring to them simply as "areas", "regions" (in a non hierarchical sense) or "phytochoria". Systems used to classify vegetation can be divided in two major groups: those that use physiognomic-environmental parameters and characteristics and those that are based on floristic (i.e. shared genera and species) rela ...
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Phytogeography
Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution of plant species and their influence on the earth's surface. Phytogeography is concerned with all aspects of plant distribution, from the controls on the distribution of individual species ranges (at both large and small scales, see species distribution) to the factors that govern the composition of entire communities and floras. Geobotany, by contrast, focuses on the geographic space's influence on plants. Fields Phytogeography is part of a more general science known as biogeography. Phytogeographers are concerned with patterns and process in plant distribution. Most of the major questions and kinds of approaches taken to answer such questions are held in common between phyto- and zoogeographers. Phytogeography in wider sense (or geobot ...
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Species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. Other ways of defining species include their karyotype, DNA sequence, morphology, behaviour or ecological niche. In addition, paleontologists use the concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. The most recent rigorous estimate for the total number of species of eukaryotes is between 8 and 8.7 million. However, only about 14% of these had been described by 2011. All species (except viruses) are given a two-part name, a "binomial". The first part of a binomial is the genus to which the species belongs. The second part is called the specific name or the specific epithet (in botanical nomenclature, also sometimes i ...
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Ludwig Diels
Dr. Friedrich Ludwig Emil Diels (24 September 1874 – 30 November 1945) was a German botanist. Diels was born in Hamburg, the son of the classical scholar Hermann Alexander Diels. From 1900 to 1902 he traveled together with Ernst Georg Pritzel through South Africa, Java, Australia and New Zealand. Shortly before the First World War he travelled New Guinea and in the 1930s in Ecuador. Especially his collections of plants from Australia and Ecuador, which contained numerous holotypes, enriched the knowledge of the concerning floras. His monography on the Droseraceae from 1906 is still a standard. The majority of his collections were stored at the botanical garden in Berlin-Dahlem, whose vicedirector he had been since 1913, becoming its director in 1921 until 1945. His collections were destroyed there during an air raid in 1943. He died in Berlin on 30 November 1945. Honours Several genus of plants have been named after him including; ''Dielsantha'' (from ''Campanulaceae' ...
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Carl Georg Oscar Drude
Carl Georg Oscar Drude (5 June 1852 in Braunschweig – 1 February 1933 in Dresden) was a German botanist. From 1870 he studied science and chemistry at the Collegium Carolinum in Braunschweig, relocating to the University of Göttingen the following year, where he was influenced by August Grisebach (1814-1879). In 1873 he obtained his PhD and subsequently served as an assistant to Friedrich Gottlieb Bartling (1798-1875). From 1876 to 1879 he worked as a lecturer in botany at Göttingen, followed by an appointment as chair of botany at Dresden Technical University (1879). Here he served as director of its botanical gardens, which he systematically configured according to a phytogeographical principle. He remained at Dresden until his retirement in 1920, twice serving as university rector (1906-1907, 1918-1919). He is known best for his research in the field of plant geography, that included mapping of the world's different floristic zones. With Adolf Engler Heinrich Gus ...
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Alphonse De Candolle
Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (28 October 18064 April 1893) was a French-Swiss botanist, the son of the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. Biography De Candolle, son of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle, first devoted himself to the study of law, but gradually drifted to botany and finally succeeded to his father's chair at the University of Geneva. He published a number of botanical works, including continuations of the ''Prodromus'' in collaboration with his son, Casimir de Candolle. Among his other contributions is the formulation, based on his father's work for the ''Prodromus'', of the first Laws of Botanical Nomenclature, which was adopted by the International Botanical Congress in 1867, and was the prototype of the current ICN. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1859 and was awarded the Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London in 1889. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Aca ...
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Joakim Frederik Schouw
Joakim Frederik Schouw (7 February 1789 – 28 April 1852) was a Danish lawyer, botanist and politician. From 1821, professor in botany at the University of Copenhagen — first extraordinary professor, but after the death of J.W. Hornemann in 1841 ordinary. His main scientific field was the new discipline of phytogeography. He also served as director of Copenhagen Botanical Garden in 1841-1852. He was a leading figure in the National Liberal movement and president of the Danish Constituent Assembly in 1848. Early life Schouw was born on 7 February 1789 in Copenhagen, the son of wine merchant Paul S. (1751–1800) and Sara Georgia Liebenberg (1761–1826). He studied law at the University of Copenhagen. Scientific career He was already a lawyer when he in the summer of 1812 travelled to Norway with the Norwegian botanist Christen Smith. On this journey, he was strongly impressed with the conspicuous zonal division of the mountain vegetation and distribution of plant species in ...
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Augustin De Candolle
Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candolle had established a new genus, and he went on to document hundreds of plant families and create a new natural plant classification system. Although de Candolle's main focus was botany, he also contributed to related fields such as phytogeography, agronomy, paleontology, medical botany, and economic botany. De Candolle originated the idea of "Nature's war", which influenced Charles Darwin and the principle of natural selection. de Candolle recognized that multiple species may develop similar characteristics that did not appear in a common evolutionary ancestor; a phenomenon now known as convergent evolution. During his work with plants, de Candolle noticed that plant leaf movements follow a near-24-hour cycle in constant light, suggesting tha ...
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Syllabus Der Pflanzenfamilien
''Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien'' (1892–) by Adolf Engler (1844–1930) is a complete revision of plant families down to generic level and often even further. As such it forms part of the Engler system of plant taxonomy. Engler's starting point was that of Eichler who had been the first to use phylogenetic principles, and reflected the new post-Darwinian perspective, although Engler himself did not think that his was. His modified Eichler schema first appeared in 1886 in his ''Guide to Breslau Botanic Garden'' (of which he was the director) and was expanded in his ''Syllabus'' in 1892. This reflected the new post-Darwinian perspective. Engler's ''Syllabus der Pflanzenfamilien'' first appeared in 1892 with the title ''Syllabus der Vorlesungen über specielle und medicinisch-pharmaceutische Botanik''. Many subsequent editions have appeared since, and it was continued after Engler's death in 1930. The most recent edition was the 13th in 2009. A number of references to the Engler ...
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Adolf Engler
Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler (25 March 1844 – 10 October 1930) was a German botanist. He is notable for his work on alpha taxonomy, plant taxonomy and phytogeography, such as ''Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien'' (''The Natural Plant Families''), edited with Karl Anton Eugen Prantl, Karl A. E. von Prantl. Even now, his system of plant classification, the Engler system, is still used by many Herbarium, herbaria and is followed by writers of many manuals and Flora (plants), floras. It is still the only system that treats all 'plants' (in the wider sense, algae to flowering plants) in such depth. Engler published a prodigious number of taxonomic works. He used various artists to illustrate his books, notably Joseph Pohl (1864–1939), an illustrator who had served an apprenticeship as a wood-engraver. Pohl's skill drew Engler's attention, starting a collaboration of some 40 years. Pohl produced more than 33 000 drawings in 6 000 plates for ''Die naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien''. He ...
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World Geographical Scheme For Recording Plant Distributions
The World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) is a biogeographical system developed by the international Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) organization, formerly the International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases. The WGSRPD standards, like other standards for data fields in botanical databases, were developed to promote "the wider and more effective dissemination of information about the world's heritage of biological organisms for the benefit of the world at large". The system provides clear definitions and codes for recording plant distributions at four scales or levels, from "botanical continents" down to parts of large countries. Current users of the system include the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), and the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Principles of organization The scheme is one of a number developed by Biodiversity Information Standar ...
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Josias Braun-Blanquet
Josias Braun-Blanquet (3 August 1884 – 20 September 1980) was an influential phytosociologist and botanist. Braun-Blanquet was born in Chur, Switzerland and died in Montpellier, France. Biography Work In Josias Braun-Blanquet's dissertation, supervised by Charles Flahault, he worked on the phytosociology of the southern Cévennes. Subsequently he established the modern way of classifying vegetation according to floristic composition. This is what makes him one of the most influential botanists until today.Nicolson, M. (1993). National Styles, Divergent Classifications: A comparative case study from the history of French and American plant ecology. Knowledge and Society: Studies in the Sociology of Science Past and Present, 8, 139-186. Braun-Blanquet's way of classifying a plant community uses the scientific name of its most characteristic species as namesake, changing the ending of the generic name to "-etum" and treating the specific epithet as adjective. Thus, a particular t ...
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Ecoregions
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural communities and species. The biodiversity of flora, fauna and ecosystems that characterise an ecoregion tends to be distinct from that of other ecoregions. In theory, biodiversity or conservation ecoregions are relatively large areas of land or water where the probability of encountering different species and communities at any given point remains relatively constant, within an acceptable range of variation (largely undefined at this point). Three caveats are appropriate for all bio-geographic mapping approaches. Firstly, no single bio-geographic framework is optimal for all taxa. Ecoregions reflect the best compromise for as many taxa as possible. Se ...
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