In message , Nick Maclaren
writes
In article ,
K writes:
|
| The taxonomic system is an attempt to reflect the 'family tree' of the
| plants involved. Therefore the assumption is that the various species of
| Prunus are closely enough related to justify them all being in the same
| genus (or, conversely, that they are not sufficiently different to
| justify a split).
|
| Or it could be that Prunus taxonmists tend to be 'lumpers' rather than
| 'splitters' ;-)
|
| How many species does Prunus have? Thymus apparently has around 350
Well, there are about 70 in Bean. What is now Prunus used to be
half a dozen different genera, but they were 'lumped' - whether
that was justified or not, I can't say. The old Prunus was just
the plums.
Prunus - plums
Amygdalus - almond
Armeniaca - apricot
Persica - peach
Cerasus - cherries
Padus - more cherries
Laurocerasus - cherry laurels
(per Komarov, 1971, fide Lee & Wen 2001)
But a single genus has been the most common position for a long time
(e.g. Bentham & Hooker, 1865).
Molecular systematics work doesn't support the split genera, but the
clade as a whole doesn't look well resolved. For the latest (April) word
on the topic see
http://www.plantsystematics.com/qika...g/jse08050.pdf
Regards,
Nick Maclaren.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley