Flowering Plants · Dicotyledons: Malvales, Capparales and Non-betalain Caryophyllales: 5 (The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants, 5) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3540428739 ISBN 13: 9783540428732

Publisher: Springer, 2002

Synopsis

When more than two decades ago this series was planned, classi?cation at the level of higher categories was rather contentious and considered to be of little concern for this book series. Through the advancement of molecular systematics within the last decade, the outlines of a phylogenetically based family scheme of angiosperms have become ava- able. This phylogenetic scheme for the ?rst time made meaningful broader comparisons feasible and is adopted here as a guideline for the circumscription of major blocks of families. However,due to the fragility of formal higher level classi?cation only one ca- gory above the rank of family,that of order,will be used in this volume. Despite the great progress in the understanding of broader phylogenetic relationships made during the last years, the circumscription of many families, let alone of genera, is still far from being settled and, in the contributions to this volume, the arrangement of genera within families is often phenetic rather than phylogenetic. This dif?culty is p- ticularly acute in larger families, and despite much molecular work that has been c- ducted in Cruciferae,the authors of that family account to this volume felt it premature to provide a formal subdivision of the group. Also,in other families,and particularly in Malvaceae-Malvoideae, the arrangement and circumscription of genera, for lack of a better alternative,are largely phenetic. Nevertheless,it is hoped that the classi?cation p- sented here is an advance over what had been known previously.

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Review

From the reviews:

" ... a contribution fully worthy of the tradition of Adolf Engler, a book that will stand the test of time and be of extraordinary use for decades to come." (Peter H. Raven, Director, Missouri Botanical Garden) 
"The volume is an excellent summary of our knowledge of classification and it is updated with numerous recent references. ... The volume has a clear outline of data and good references, and I find it very useful, both for teaching, as well as for research.  ... The key to genera is very helpful for identification purposes and has much potential for use in the herbarium. The series represents the most detailed account of seed plant diversity at this stage. This is a series everyone concerned with phylogeny should have in his library." (Plant Systematics and Evolution)

"I have been eagerly waiting for this edition to come out and I am not unhappy with the result. ... The volume has a clear outline of data, and good references, and I find it very useful, both for teaching, as well as for research. ... The key to genera is very helpful for identification purposes and has much potential for use in the herbarium. ... This is a series everyone concerned with phylogeny should have in his library." (Louis Ronse De Craene, Plant Systematics and Evolution, Vol. 242 (1-4), 2003)

Synopsis

This encyclopaedia contains a comprehensive treatment of the taxonomy of the families and genera of ferns and seed plants. The present volume, the fifth in this series, deals with three major groups of dicotyledons, the Capparales, Malvales, and Non-betalain Caryophyllales. The taxonomy of these groups, which comprise 40 families and 752 genera, is based on the results of the most recent research. This is especially true of the families Cruciferae and Malvaceae, to which more than two thirds of the genera treated in this volume belong. The integration of morphological information and the results of molecular studies have led to a revised classification and have opened the way to an understanding of character evolution in these strongly diversified groups.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3540428739
• ISBN 13: 9783540428732
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 428
• Editor: Kubitzki Klaus, Bayer Clemens