#Wendy Zomlefer

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My notes for the Introduction chapter of A Guide to Flowering Plant Families by Wendy B. Zomlefer

Glossary

Floristics - The branch of phytogeography concerned with the study of plant species present in an area

Phytogeography - The branch of botany that deals with the geographical distribution of plants

Phytogenetic - Relating to the evolutionary development and classification of a species or group of organisms, or of a particular feature of an organism

Herbarium (pl. herbaria) - a systematically arranged collection of dried plants. Can refer to anything as small as a box dried plants are kept in, to an entire building or multiple buildings housing a collection.

Flora - The plants growing in a region. Think flora and fauna

Circumscribe - To define the limits of something. In this case, a species, genus, or family.

Phenetics (also taximetrics) - an attempt to classify organisms based on overall similarity, regardless of phylogeny or evolutionary relation from glossary

Phylogeny - the branch of biology concerned with phylogenetics from glossary

Monophyletic - A group of organisms descended from a common ancestor, including all descendants. ie all kittens had by one cat (including any descendants of said kittens) are a monophyletic group from glossary

Paraphyletic - A group that includes some, but not all, descendants of a common ancestor. ie one specific litter of kittens from a cat is a paraphyletic group, if the cat has had other litters from glossary

Monocotyledon (also monocot) - A flowering plant that produces one cotyledon

Dicotyledon (also dicot) - A flowering plant that produces two cotyledons

Cotyledon - The primary leaf, or one of two primary leaves in an embryo. The first leaves to come up when a plant sprouts. Also known as a seed leaf from glossary

Synoptic - forming a general summary

Cladistics - A taxonomic theory where the relationships of taxa are determined on shared derived character states, which indicates recency of common ancestry from glossary

Character State - A trait that can be inherited. ie in "hair present" and "hair absent", hair is the character, and present/absent are the states

Pers. Comm. - abbreviation for personal communication, not available to the public. Used to cite emailing, or a discussion in the hallway, etc.

Molecular phylogenetics - Classification based on analyzing DNA for shared ancestry. Whenever she says "molecular x" that's related to DNA studies

Habit - The general appearance of a plant from glossary

Inflorescence - The arrangement of flowers on the floral axis, or a flower cluster from glossary

Perianth - Collective term for the calyx and corolla from glossary

Calyx - The outermost whorl of the typical perianth, composed of the sepals from glossary

Sepal - One part of the other floral envelope, typically green and leaflike. Think those leaves that enclose a dandelion bud, and then fold back as it blooms from glossary

Corolla - The inner whorl (or several inner whorls) of the perianth, composed of the petals from glossary

Androecium - Collective term for the “male” reproductive organs of a flower from glossary

Gynoecium - Collective term for the “female” reproductive organs of a flower from glossary

Staminate - A flower (staminate flower) that lacks a functional gynoecium and has a functional androecium from glossary

Carpellate (also pistillate) - A flower (carpellate flower) that has a functional gynoecium and lacks a functional androecium from glossary

Monoecious - Plants that bear staminate and carpellate flowers on the same plant, but do not bear perfect flowers. Think pumpkins and other squash from glossary

Dioecious - Plants that bear staminate and carpellate flowers on different plants. Think asparagus or spinach from glossary

Polygamodioecious - Functionally dioecious, but forms a few flowers of the “opposite” sex or a few perfect flowers on the same plant from glossary

Perfect - A flower with a functional androecium and a functional gynoecium from glossary

Xylem - The tissue that transports water and nutrients throughout a plant. Wood is an example of xylem

Pholem - Tissue that brings sugars out of leaves

Sclerenchyma - Protective or supporting tissue. Typically has thicker cell walls and lignin

Endosperm - The tissue of many seeds, contains starches and oils. Derived from the triple fusion nucleus of the embryo sac. from glossary This is the part of the seed that goes into things like white flour, coconut meat, and coconut water. More details on the wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endosperm I can’t figure out how to distill that into a nice definition

Perisperm - Seed storage tissue, similar to the endosperm but derived from the nucellus from glossary - more details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovule but there is A LOT of jargon

Summary:

The introduction has an intro and 5 sections, with some of them having subsections. This chapter goes over what the structure of the rest of the book will be like, as well as noting the major cited works and authors.

Intro

Angiosperms, or flowering plants, have been the dominant form of plant for more than 100 million years. They are extremely diverse, and include most plants humans depend on. This book focuses on families of flowering plants, because families can be found around the world, whereas genera (sg. genus) and species are often too regionally specific.

Choice of Classification

This section goes over historical attempts to classify plants, and discusses how in the past genetic relationships weren’t generally considered. Zomlefer doesn’t seem to like that, and instead generally follows the work of Robert Thorne, who stressed genetic relationships in his groupings. Thorne also mentioned that we don’t know enough about angiosperms to confidently classify them above the family level, and so this book only goes up to families.

Choice of Families and Family List

Zomlefer chose 130 families for this book, and attempted to capture a good balance of temperate and tropical, and woody and herbaceous families. Then there is a big ol’ list of all the families in the book. It covers about two and a half pages.

Family Treatments

I think? Family treatments are the detailed going-over of each family. It’s a bit unclear in the book and hard to google.

This section goes over the structure of the details that will be given about each family. There are several subsections, where Zomlefer describes what will be in each section further on in the book.

Family Diagnoses - Goes over the general structures of each family, without going over the many exceptions to each rule

Family Characterization - Goes over the general distinguishing features of each family, with emphasis on the genera in the US

Genera/species - Estimates for the total number of genera and species in each family.

Distribution - Worldwide distribution

Major Genera - The largest genera in the family. In cases where a family has six or fewer genera, this is wrapped into Genera/species.

U.S./Canadian Representatives - This covers major members of the family on Turtle Island. Includes all the continental US, Canada, Greenland, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Economic Plants and Products - Includes the most economically important members of a family, like poisons, food, medicines, and weeds

Commentary - The content of this section will vary, as it’s a discussion of the important and interesting features of a family. Pollination is mentioned consistently. This is also where the "many exceptions to each rule" mentioned in Family Diagnoses will be listed

References Cited - All the references for each family

Tables

22 charts that appear throughout the book. They cover. Various things.

Illustrations and Plant Material

Zomlefer drew all the illustrations for this book herself. She goes over the difficulty in locating specimens and having them still be around later, due to mowing, construction, fire, etc. Original sketches were done with the help of a microscope, and she goes over the meanings of different types of lines and stippling.

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Guide to Flowering Plant Families by Wendy B. Zomlefer

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