Plant Systematics

by Michael G. Simpson

Overview

Plant Systematics has made a substantial contribution to plant systematics courses at the upper-undergraduate and first year graduate level. This second edition continues to provide the basis for teaching an introduction to the morphology, evolution, and classification of land plants. A foundation of the approach, methods, research goals, evidence, and terminology of plant systematics are presented along with the most recent knowledge of evolutionary relationships of plants and practical information vital to the field.

In this second edition, the author includes greatly expanded treatments of families of lycophytes, ferns, gymnosperms, and flowering plants (all with full-color plates), a new chapter on species concepts and the role of systematics in conservation biology, and a new appendix summarizing basic statistical and morphometric techniques used in plant systematics studies. An explanation of maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference algorithms is included in methods of phylogenetic inference, and chapters on morphology and plant nomenclature have been augmented with new material.

The second edition of Plant Systematics has been expanded to include:

* Fifteen fern families, 9 gymnosperm families, and an increase of angiosperm family treatments from 100 to 129. Each family description includes a plate of full color photographs, illustrating exemplars of the group along with dissected and labeled material to show diagnostic features.

* A new chapter on species concepts and the role and impact of plant systematics in conservation biology.

* A new appendix on statistical and morphometric techniques in plant systematics.

* In addition, the second edition contains more detailed explanations of maximum likelihood and Bayesian phylogeny inference methods, an expanded coverage and glossary of morphological terms, and an updated chapter on botanical nomenclature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780080922089
Publisher:	Elsevier Science
Publication date:	07/29/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	752
File size:	48 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Dr. Michael G. Simpson has been a professor of Biology at San Diego State University since 1986. His area of expertise is plant systematics, dealing with the description, identification, naming and classification of plants with the overriding goal of inferring the pattern of evolutionary history (phylogeny). Dr. Simpson has taught courses in Principles of Organismal Biology, Plant Systematics, Taxonomy of California Plants, Economic Botany, Genetics and Evolution, and Seminar in Systematics and Evolution. Additionally, he serves as the Curator of the SDSU Herbarium where he oversees the maintenance, organization, and use of the collection and facilitates additions to the herbarium. Currently, his field work in Chile and Argentina is supported in part by the National Geographic Society.

In addition to publishing numerous articles in technical journals, Dr. Simpson has authored of the widely used textbook Plant Systematics (Elsevier-Academic Press, 2006; 2nd ed. 2010.)

Table of Contents

UNIT I SYSTEMATICS Chapter 1 Plant Systematics: an Overview Chapter 2 Phylogenetic Systematics

UNIT II EVOLUTION AND DIVERSITY OF PLANTS Chapter 3 Evolution and Diversity of Green and Land Plants Chapter 4 Evolution and Diversity of Vascular Plants Chapter 5 Evolution and Diversity of Woody and Seed Plants Chapter 6 Evolution of Flowering Plants Chapter 7 Diversity and Classification of Flowering Plants: Amborellales, Nymphaeales, Austrobaileyales, Magnoliids, Ceratophyllales, and Monocots Chapter 8 Diversity and Classification of Flowering Plants: Eudicots

UNIT III SYSTEMATIC EVIDENCE AND DESCRIPTIVE TERMINOLOGY Chapter 9 Plant Morphology Chapter 10 Plant Anatomy and Physiology Chapter 11 Plant Embryology Chapter 12 Palynology Chapter 13 Plant Reproductive Biology Chapter 14 Plant Molecular Systematics

UNIT IV RESOURCES IN PLANT SYSTEMATICS Chapter 15 Plant Identification Chapter 16 Plant Nomenclature Chapter 17 Plant Collecting and Documentation Chapter 18 Herbaria and Data Information Systems

UNIT V SPECIES CONCEPTS AND CONSERVATION BIOLOGY Chapter 19 Species and Conservation in Systematics

Appendix 1 Plant Description Appendix 2 Botanical Illustrations Appendix 3 Scientific Journals in Plant Systematics Appendix 4 Statistics and Morphometrics in Plant Systematics

Glossary of terms Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Recipient of the Henry Allan Gleason Award, given annually by the New York Botanical Garden in recognition of an outstanding recent publication in the field of plant taxonomy, plant ecology, or plant geography

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the first edition:
"This publication, many years in the making, represents a masterly treatment of vascular plant groups and the principles of plant systematics as well as incorporating the latest concepts in phylogenetics and methodologies. It is erudite and most importantly - user friendly, especially students. This text will serve as the standard for many years to come."
— Botanical Society of America

From the Publisher