Exercise 1

Classification in Botany

2B7 Group #7

Ngo, Ricky Justin N

Pascua, Carlitos

Ramirez, Mary

Reyes, Jojee

(1) What is a plant? How do plants differ from all other organisms?
A plant is a multicellular, autotrophic living organism, capable of photosynthesis, adapted to
living on land, and belongs to the kingdom Plantae. What makes plants different from all
other organisms is that they are able to make their own food. They do this in a process
called photosynthesis. Also, the cells of plants differ from eukaryotes (with a membrane-
bounded nucleus) for its cell walls are composed of cellulose, the stiffening material in tree
trunks, twigs, the veins of leaves, and so on. In addition, nearly all plants are green or have
parts that are green. This green color is caused by a chemical called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll
is found in the chloroplasts. Animals, protozoans, and fungi lack the ability to produce
chlorophyll and have no chloroplasts.

(2) How did you classify organisms? On what basis?

Classification of organisms is a type of taxonomy. I matched an organism to the proper
subgroup starting at the top with Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and working
down to species (Seven basic ranks of all known organisms). The basis of my classification of
certain organisms was based on very basic, shared characteristics, physical characteristics
and genetic relationships.

(3) What is phenetics? How is it different from phylogenetics?

Phenetics is an attempt to classify organisms based on overall similarity, usually in
morphology or other observable traits, regardless of their phylogeny or evolutionary
relation. It differs from phylogenetics which is based on evolutionary history or pattern or
descent, which may or may not correspond to overall similarity.

(4) On the basis of variation, rank the characters from the highest to the lowest
Habit, Leaf type, Phyllotaxy, Leaf Apex, Leaf Base, Root type.
(5) Which among given characters are considered informative and uninformative? Why?
Among the characters, its phyllotaxy and plant habit, as well as leaf apex and leaf bases are
considered informative. It is for the reason that based on these characters alone, one could
most of the time classify a certain organism in its proper subgroups (taxonomy). And it is
usually in a variety of character states. However, not all of the given characters are
considered informative. Root type is considered uninformative because it is typically either
taproot or fibrous only (usually). Also to get such information, one must either pull the plant
out of the ground (killing the plant in the process).
(6) Differentiate Botany from Plant Sciences
Botany is the study of most organisms traditionally treated as plants, including virtually all
eukaryotic photosynthetic organisms plus other eukaryotic organisms with cell walls and
spores. Plant science is the study of plants (land plants). In this sense, botany is inclusive of
but broader than the plant sciences.
(7) Which character/s can be used to form the most informative type of grouping? Why?
The character that can be used to form the most informative type of grouping is plant habit.
It is for the reason that it refers to the general form of the plant which encompasses a
variety of components such as stem duration, branching pattern, development, and texture.