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Article: Taxonomy
- Article from:
- Plant Sciences
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Taxonomy
Narrowly defined, plant taxonomy is that aspect of the study of plants having to do with taxa
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that is, the naming of plant names (nomenclature) and the determination of the hierarchical relationships used to identify them or understand their relationships (identification and classification). More broadly defined, plant taxonomy includes areas of investigation from a variety of disciplines, including classification, nomenclature, phylogeny reconstruction, and investigation of evolutionary processes. Under this broader definition, the goal of taxonomy is to use comparative data to assess relationships between plants, define taxonomic boundaries between species and other ...