Learn more about
Flower Species

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If you've ever went on a hunt for information on flower species you were most likely overwhelmed. Most of what you'll find are outlines for university courses on plant taxonomy. But I did hit pay dirt. You are about to know more about flower species than you ever imagined existed.

The first thing you need to know about plants is that they are classified as members of the plant kingdom. The taxonomy is based on elements that might come as a surprise. There are several systems of taxonomy but we will look at one of the more common which is the one devised by Carolus Linnaeus in the 18th century.

Here is some indication of the why plants are classified and how challenging the process was to develop. A palm tree has more in common with a blade of grass than with other trees. A strawberry plant is more closely related to an apple tree than to a geranium. A Maidenhair tree is in the same category as a pine tree but is so different that is has its own phylum.

Huh? What's a phylum?

The plant kingdom is classified this way. It is divided into 12 phyla (it's Latin so the singular is phylum and the plural is phyla). This is just a fancy way of saying there are 12 divisions of plants. The divisions are based on the plants reproductive characteristics and classified according to tissue structure (non-vascular and vascular), by seed structure (naked seeds, covered seeds, and spores) and by stature (mosses, ferns, shrubs and vines, trees, and herbs). After the kingdom and its 12 phyla, there is class, order, family, genus, and species.

I cannot resist adding this – just to show you how the scientific mind can work. Biology students have to know this stuff and they use a mnemonic to remember the classifications. Here is an example. King Philip Came Over For Ginger Snaps. Each letter stands for the classification. Now, where was I? Oh yes, flower species.

Let's take a single example. How about the geranium? It is part of the plant kingdom. Its phyla is Anthophyta (or Magnoliophyta). Its class is Dicotyledones (or Magnoliopsida). Its order is Geraniales. Its family is Geraniaceae and its genus is Geranium. What does this tell us?

Anthophyta are flowering plants. These are divided into two classed based on the number of cotyledons or leaf-like structures that are part of the seed. The cotyledons provide food to the seed until true leaves are formed. If the plant has two cotyledons they are dicots. If they have one cotyledon they are monocots. Can you figure out how many cotyledons, the geranium has? Aha. It's a member of the Dicotyledones class.

Geraniales have the following families.
• Geranium Family (Geraniaceae)
• Meadow-Foam Family (Limnanthaceae)
• Melianthus Family (Melianthaceae)
• Nasturtium Family (Tropaeolaceae)
• Touch-Me-Not Family (Balsaminaceae)
• Wood-Sorrel Family (Oxalidaceae)

The Geranium family has the following genus categories:
• Geranium (Geranium)
• Geranium (Pelargonium)
• Stork's Bill (Erodium)

So we have worked our way through the maze to the Geranium genus. So what about the flower species?

There are dozens of species of geranium. Let's look at the California Cranesbill (Geranium californicum). The latin name shows the genus (Geranium) and the species (californicum).

By know the genus and flower species we can learn a great deal about what plants are related to what other plants.