If, let’s say – a newly discovered plant species is placed into a specific family (e.g. Lamiaceae). My question is, *how* do Taxonomists decide *which* and *why* plant species need to be placed into that very specific family? I apologise for any confusion, just don’t really know how to word it. Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.
In: 3
This is actually a great question. Taxonomies are a whole thing in the history of science. [This is probably one of the most commonly assigned works on the topic.](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674673588)
Basically, once things get sorted into the kingdom level of “plants”, they get broken down through the taxonomic structure according to [these criteria](https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/backgrounders/plant-taxonomy).
Historians of science have fun with this process because, while it’s not random or anything, it is an attempt to impose order and meaning on an ontological reality that doesn’t necessarily give a fuck about order or meaning, and a different culture or different life-form that prioritized different essential traits could easily come up with an equally valid, but totally different taxonomic structure.
A good classroom exercise that’s sometimes used in the history of science for this question is to give the kids a bucket of matching assorted candies and sweets and ask them to come up with a taxonomy for the candies inside.
Some are better than others – a taxonomy based on personal favorite to least favorite is a bad one, as is one with too many “platypuses”. But students come up with all sorts of different valid methods of organizing the bucket.
Latest Answers