A botanical treatment---enhanced with superb watercolors---of the only three genera of the iris family that are woody shrubs rather than the familiar herbaceous plants that occur elsewhere in the family.
Irises and their relatives are lily-like plants related to the orchid and narcissus families, with whom they share a propensity for large, brightly colored, attractive flowers. Many have longlasting flowersÑIris, Gladiolus, and Freesia are among the most important cut-flower crops in the world. The intricate flowers of the iris family are finely adapted for pollination by a variety of animals, including hummingbirds, sunbirds, beetles, butterflies, moths, wasps, and bees. This intimate connection between flower form and pollination biology reveals how the marvelous range of flower colors, shapes, and scents are vital to the lives of the species. The diversity of Iridaceae is illustrated in more than 200 superb photographs supplemented by expert line drawings. A lifetime of work by the world's expert on Iridaceae is distilled in this definitive account. Botanists, ecologists, naturalists, and gardeners will find this an essential reference.
The culmination of more than fifty years of research by the foremost living expert on plant classification, Diversity and Classification of Flowering Plants is an important contribution to the field of plant taxonomy. In the last decade, the system of classifying plants has been thoroughly revised. Instead of describing every individual family, Takhtajan includes descriptions in keys to families, which he calls "descriptive keys." The advantage of descriptive keys is that they give both the characteristic features of the families and their differences. The delimitation of families and orders drastically differs from the one accepted by the Englerian school and from the one accepted in Arthur Cronquist's system. Takhtajan favors the smaller, more natural families and orders, which are more coherent and better-defined, where characters are easily grasped, and which are more suitable for information retrieval and phylogenetic studies, including cladistic analysis (because it reduces polymorphic codings).
This book, Volume VIII in the notable series Anatomy of the Monocotyledons, describes the anatomy of the leaves and stems of the Iridaceae, a flowering plant family that includes several horticulturally important genera such as Iris, Crocus, Gladliolus, and Freesia. Like the earlier volumes in the series, it will be an essential reference work for plant scientists and horticulturalists.
Armen Takhtajan is among the greatest authorities in the world on the evolution of plants. This book culminates almost sixty years of the scientist's research of the origin and classification of the flowering plants. It presents a continuation of Dr. Takhtajan’s earlier publications including “Systema Magnoliophytorum” (1987), (in Russian), and “Diversity and Classification of Flowering Plants” (1997), (in English). In his latest book, the author presents a concise and significantly revised system of plant classification (‘Takhtajan system’) based on the most recent studies in plant morphology, embryology, phytochemistry, cytology, molecular biology and palynology. Flowering plants are divided into two classes: class Magnoliopsida (or Dicotyledons) includes 8 subclasses, 126 orders, c. 440 families, almost 10,500 genera, and no less than 195,000 species; and class Liliopsida (or Monocotyledons) includes 4 subclasses, 31 orders, 120 families, more than 3,000 genera, and about 65,000 species.This book contains a detailed description of plant orders, and descriptive keys to plant families providing characteristic features of the families and their differences.
When Rolf Dahlgren and I embarked on preparing this book series, Rolf took prime responsibility for monocotyledons, which had interested him for a long time. After finishing his comparative study and family classification of the mono cots, he devoted much energy to the acquisition and editing of family treatments for the present series. After his untimely death, Peter Goldblatt, who had worked with him, continued to handle further incoming monocot manuscripts until, in the early 1990s, his other obligations no longer allowed him to continue. At that time, some 30 manuscripts in various states of perfection had accumulated, which seemed to form a solid basis for a speedy completion of the FGVP monocots; with the exception of the grasses and orchids which would appear in separate volumes. I felt a strong obligation to do everything to help in publishing the manuscripts that had been put into our hands. I finally decided to take charge of them personally, although during my life as a botanist I had never seriously been interested in mono cots.
The Term Systematic Botany Encompasses The Domain Not Only Of The Higher Plants, But Also Of The Lower Plants. Since It Is Not Possible To Treat Adequately The Various Plant-Groups Under A Single Volume, This Edition Is Restricted To A Discussion Of The Angiosperms. It Has Been Designed As A Textbook For The Undergraduate Students (Pass & Honours) Of All The Indian Universities And It Will Be Helpful To Postgraduate Students In Botany As Well As To The Study Of Agriculture And Allied Subjects. The Author Has Abandoned Bentham-Hookers System And Presented A New Scheme Of Angiosperm-Classification. Although The Latter Scheme, Like Any Other Envisaged Before, Has Its Shortcomings, It Represents The Most Probable Natural Relationship Among Flowering Plants.Almost All The Taxa Prevalent In The Indian Flora Have Been Dealt With, Covering 44 Orders And 193 Families. Generally, Each Order Has Been Discussed In The Light Of Phylogeny And With Emphasis On Its General Features, Circum Inter-Relationship, Origin And Means Of Identification Of Various Families (By Bracketed Keys). Those Families Prominent In The Countrys Flora Have Been Described Under Six Or Seven Different Heads, Depending On The Available Information. Though The Inconspicuous Ones Have Not Been Categorised Likewise, One Can Even Find In Them The Array Of Items Under Each Family Being Suitably Treated. Moreover, The Nomenclature Of Plants Have Been Checked And Brought Up-To-Date As Far As Possible. Part One Is An Expose Of Taxonomic Principles, While PartsThree And Four, Deal With The Dicotyledonous And Monocotyledonous Plants Respectively. Under Part Two, There Are Certain Specialised Topics Which Have A Bearing On The Study Of The Systematic Botany Of Angiosperms. A List Of Important Books And Papers Is Inserted At The End Of Each Part. In Brief, The Author Has Made Anattempt To Give A Complete Picture Of Angiosperm Systematics.
Trees are one of the dominant features of our existence on earth and play a fundamental role in the environment. This book gives the reader an overview and understanding of trees. Subject areas covered include ecology and conservation, tree anatomy and evolution, pathology, silviculture, propagation, and surgery. The different chapters cover trees