Plant families

A complex hierarchy of the systematics of biological species includes many categories. The plant families stand below the order (order) and above the genus. Their names are formed in accordance with the rules, which are regulated by the international codes of the botanical nomenclature. The name of the family of plants is formed by adding to the base the name of the standard type of the standard ending -aceae. So, for example, the name of Rosaceae family is formed , which consists of the name of the genus "Rosa", from which the base Ros- is taken and the ending -aceae is added. The scientific classification sometimes uses derived ranks: subfamilies and superfamilies.

Plant families in the modern sense arose at the beginning of the 20th century. For the first time this category was introduced by the botanist from France Pierre Maniol in 1689. For many decades it designated groups of absolutely different character. This practice of using this name ceased only in 1906 when the international rules of the botanical nomenclature were adopted. In accordance with the rules, this name began to denote everything that was previously called orders in Latin or families - in French.

Despite the diversity of plants, it should be noted that some of them are more similar to each other, and some are less. Such similarity is determined by the relationship of these plants. It is related species that underlie the formation of families. It is assumed that on our planet grows more than 350 thousand species of different plants:

- moss-like: they have 1.3 thousand genera and 25 thousand species;

- ferns: there are 300 genera and 11 thousand species;

- horsetail: 1 genus and about 25 species;

- Pliouniform: 4 genera and 1 thousand species;

- gymnosperms: 60 genera and 700 species;

- angiosperms (flowering): there are more than 500 families, about 13 thousand genera and more than 250 thousand species.

There are plant families that are most interested in people in terms of their use in everyday life. Without such plants, human life in general would not be possible, since many of them constitute a significant part of its diet. One of the most common is a family of dicotyledons. The characteristic features of such plants are: the presence of two cotyledons; The number of different flower elements in the overwhelming number of them is equal to or multiples of 4 and 5; Located annularly conductive tissue. The root system of these plants is predominantly rod-shaped. This family is represented by all life forms. Among dicotyledons there are herbs, bushes and trees. This family is about 4/5 flowering plants on the planet.

Plants of the family of legumes belong to the class of dicotyledons. This is a very numerous species. The flowers of its representatives consist of 5 unequal petals, have an irregular shape, 10 stamens. The fruits of legumes are typically arranged. Their device is called the botanical term "bob". A common feature of the family is a singleton ovary, which is not divided into lobes, and the fruit of all plants is multi-seeded, bivalve. The mature fruit bursts at the seams of the leaflets, to which the seeds are attached.

Beans have about 6,600 species and 200 genera. They are spread all over the planet. This family is divided into subfamilies: tsezalpinia, mimosa, legumes. The share of the latter accounts for the largest number of plants in the family. Some of them are the most important human food: beans, beans, lentils, peas, chickpeas, peanuts, soy. The fruits of these crops are characterized by a high content of vegetable protein, many minerals and vitamins. Many of them are used as valuable feed for animals: clover, vetch, sainfoin, sweet clover, alfalfa. Herbaceous representatives of legumes, capable of extracting nitrogen from the atmosphere, are the main plants that are used for land reclamation.