List of systems of plant taxonomy

This list shows different ways scientists group plants together. A taxonomic system is a way to organize plants based on their features and how they are related.

To be on this list, a system must study many plants and give them special names. It also needs to show how plants are connected to each other. Thinking about plant relationships began a long time ago, but real systems started in the 1800s when many new plants were found around the world.

One important moment was when Linnaeus published Species Plantarum. This book started the use of binomial nomenclature for plants, where each plant has a two-part name. Some early systems from the 1700s existed, but they were not as complete as later ones. Often, a system changes over time and has many versions. The Cronquist system is well-known for having many different versions used by scientists.

Chronological list of systems

Pre-Linnaean

Early ways to group plants were made by scholars like Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Albertus Magnus, Caesalpino, John Gerard, Gaspard Bauhin, John Ray, and Tournefort.

From Linnaeus to Darwin (pre-Darwinian)

The most famous system was made by Carl Linnaeus. His work included books like Systema Naturae, 1st edition and Species Plantarum. Other important systems came from scholars such as Adanson, de Jussieu, de Candolle, Berchtold and Presl, Dumortier, Lindley, Bentham & Hooker, and Baillon.

Post Darwinian (Phyletic)

After Darwin, new ways to classify plants appeared. These include systems by Eichler, Van Tieghem, Engler, Bessey, Wettstein, Rendle, Lotsy, Hallier, Warming, Hutchinson, Calestani, Kimura, Benson, Emberger, Melchior, Takhtajan, Cronquist, Thorne, Stebbins, Dahlgren, and Goldberg.

Other notable systems are the Kubitzki system (1990- ), Shipunov system (1991–), Reveal system (1997), and Judd system (1999–2016).

The modern approach is represented by the APG system, which includes updates from APG I (1998), APG II (2003), APG III (2009), the Chase & Reveal System (2009), and APG IV (2016).

Other systems

Here are some other ways scientists have grouped plants over time:

• Bartling system
• Deyl system
• Endlicher system
• Fritsch system (for algae)
• Gundersen system
• Hallier system
• Hoek, Mann and Jahns system (for algae)
• Mez system
• Novák system
• Pascher system (for algae)
• Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group system
• Pulle system
• Rafinesque system
• Rouleau system
• Smith system (for simple plants like algae and mosses)
• Skottsberg system
• Soó system
• Strasburguer system
• Tippo system