Q. What do you understand by taxonomy?
Taxonomy is dependent on many sciences and they in turn are equally dependent on it. The activities of a taxonomist are basic to all other biological sciences because it provides an inventory of flora and fauna, schemes to identification, names and a system of classification of plants and animals. Not only is taxonomy basic to other scientific, fields but also it depends on other disciplines like ecology, plant breeding phytosociology, pharmacology and biochemistry. While dealing with taxonomic problems we have to understand the distribution of plants and animals. The scores of thousands of plants known today as species have been established by the application of the existing and established principles of taxonomy. You should know that the accumulated knowledge of Earth's flora is far from perfect and will become more perfect only by exploration of its areas, collection of its components, their study and classification.
Once names and classification systems have been provided there must be methods for us to identify a taxon as being similar to another known entity. We will discuss keys to the identification of plants and animals in Unit 6. In this unit you will study the ecological and phytosaciological aspects of taxonomy, herbaria, botanic gardens and green house.