Definition of Plant

[Bill Purves]

David Hershey asked:

>Is there still disagreement over what organisms are included in the
>Plant Kingdom?

Indeed there is!  It's already appearing in the responses ;-)
It's fair to say that there is disagreement--wholesome disagreement,
of course.  There are compelling arguments on both/all sides.

Faced with how to handle this in the sixth edition of my book, now
being written, I opted to go with Judd et al. (1999) "Plant
Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach," Sinauer Associates.
Theirs is a cladistic approach; because the Chlorophyta and
the land plants constitute a monophyletic lineage, they include
both in the plant kingdom.  Some of those who choose not
to include the Chlorophyta in the plant kingdom do acknowledge
the existence of the monophyletic lineage and base their
splitting on other criteria.

(bill)


William K. Purves      Vice President/Editorial Director
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