Q. Explain the taxonomic concepts?
The history of classification is an exciting aspect of plant taxonomy. The discovery of the use of plants for food and later as medicine began at a very early stage in the history of civilisation. The early hunter-gatherer society eventually gave way to the classification of plants. Plants were classified as edible, poisonous and medicinal. Thus plant taxonomy originated and took its shape. The earlier groupings were practical and based largely on their economic uses. They were not based entirely on morphology but also on smell, taste and nutritive value. From that period to present day the development of taxonomy has witnessed a series of changes, The ancient concept about plants has undergone an entire change with advance of knowledge and updated versions of earlier work; Plants provide an orderly and comprehensive array of curiosities for their classification.
The history of plant taxonomy is fascinating and full of controversies and is still reshaping itself. Systematised story of plant description dates back to the period of Bock, de I'oble, Brunfels and Fuchs, Philosophical giants like Theophratus, Aristotle, Dioscoroides and Pliny added a more systematic and scientific approach to the subject. The progress in taxonomy was gradual and assisted by all those interested in various aspects of economic plants. Earlier attempts to classify plants from each other were purely artificial and based on external features of the plants alone.