A definition, A definition. My kingdom for a workable definition.
David Hershey <dh321 at excite.com> wrote in article
<37FED48F.F668681E at excite.com>...
> I think it's something worth discussing. Most botany textbooks don't
> have the term plant in their glossaries. Stern's "Introductory Plant
> Biology" does and defines plants simply as members of the Kingdom
> Plantae. There is certainly a lot of holdover from the old two kingdom
> system where plant was basically defined as nonanimal.
>> I think there are advantages to having a clear definition for plant.
> Botany is heavy on terminology, and much of it is confused despite
> lengthy glossaries in most botany/biology texts, floras, and field
> guides not to mention several dictionaries of botany. A lot of the
> definitions are imprecise, and different books often have significantly
> different definitions for the same term. Even young children should be
> able to tell apart a bacterium, a mushroom, and a tree, so to call all
> of them plants is potentially confusing especially given how difficult
> it is to replace student misconceptions about science with correct
> knowledge. It would be very useful if there was a copyright-free,
> official online botanical glossary so that there could be less confusion
> in terminology.
>> The five kingdom system has wide acceptance in textbooks and although
> there are competing schemes, such as the three domain system, the five
> kingdom system has a lot of advantages for educational use. Five
> Kingdoms is often taught in high school biology and even as early as the
> 6th grade: http://curie.uncg.edu/~esmith/5kings.html>> David Hershey
>dh321 at excite.com>>> Russell_Goddard wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, 7 Oct 1999, David Hershey wrote:
> >
> > > the Plant Kingdom
> > > consists of just bryophytes and vascular plants, so I was surprised
that
> >
> > > the American Society of Plant Physiologists'.. states...
> > > that "Plants exhibit diversity in size and shape ranging from single
> > > cells to gigantic trees."
> > >
> > > Is there still disagreement over what organisms are included in the
> > > Plant Kingdom?
> > >
> >
> > My answer? I don't think there is that much disagreement with what
> > organisms are included in the Plant Kingdom, but there is disagreement
on
> > what organisms might be included under the TERM, "plant." I tell my
> > students that the word plant is a term and not a taxonomic
classification.
> > This makes it much easier for them to digest the evololutionary origins
of
> > terrestrial plants. As a term, many definitions of the word "plant"
are
> > in use by biologists (and others). You really have two questions
above.
> > "What organisms should be included in Kingdom Plantae?" ...and "what
is a
> > plant?" The word "plant" is not necessarily synonymous with organisms
in
> > Kingdom Plantae. I spend my first lecture/discussion in botany class
on
> > this topic, "What is a plant." There is no clear answer. I use a
broad
> > definition that includes all photosynthetic (chlorophyll a containing)
> > organisms in three Kingdoms. I then spend time talking about the
> > cyanobacteria in general and prochlorophytes specifically for making
> > connections to the eukaryotic algae. I like to show the diversity of
> > form and function in several Phyla of algae and their similarities to
> > terrestrial plants, then spend more time on the Chlorophyta as
containing
> > possible progenitors to what we now include in Kingdom Plantae. So for
> > me, they are all "plants" but obviously this is debatable. As
botanists,
> > do we need to define this term more specifically among ourselves?
> >
> >
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> > Russell H. Goddard Phone: (912) 249-2642
> > Valdosta State University Main Office: (912) 333-5759
> > Biology Department FAX: (912) 333-7389
> > 2009 Nevins Hall email: rgoddard at valdosta.edu> > Valdosta, GA 31698-0015 http://www.valdosta.edu/~rgoddard/> >
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>
