Los Visionarios – Articles and Publications

FAMILY TREES FOR THE PLANT "KINGDOM"

Botanical gardens should arrange plants in a way to demonstrate the fundamental principles of ecology and the dependence of man on plants. Phylogenetic gardens provide and outstanding method of doing this.

Phylogenetic gardens are family trees for plants, designed as gardening beds, laid out in a way that lets you see the relationship that exist between closely related kinds. Phylogenetic garden arrangements demonstrate the diversity of the plant gene pool, and allow us to see the work of evolutionary change in the origins of our living plants. Since there are 10 major divisions of plants, one can make a tiny garden with one member of each of these. In the right layout, this is a primary phylogenetic learning garden for the plant kingdom.

A PHYLOGENETIC STRUCTURE FOR THE PLANT KINGDOM

Phylogenetic gardening layouts derive from the mapping techniques of Rolf Dahlgren's new taxonomy of the angiosperms. A phylogenetic garden for the plant kingdom (see illustration) illustrates the 40 major groups of plants distributed into 10 divisions. The 10th division is our most recently evolved flora, the flowering plants, or angiosperms. According to the revised taxonomy of Rolf Dahlgren, the angiosperms subdivide into 36 superorders. The 36 superorders are built from 106 orders, which in turn are composed of 540 families. A garden planted with representatives of each of the families, in the right format, is a phylogenetic garden.

Phylogenetic gardens arranged according to this system can be built for each of the superorders, orders, families, genera, for single species, and for individual varieties. A composition of gardens featuring the diversity of each grouping becomes an important gene-pool resource and treasure for future generations.

MAPPING THE 10,000 GENERATION HUMAN INTERACTION WITH PLANTS

Specific phylogenetic gardens can illustrate our human interaction with groups of plants. Phylogenetic gardens may be used to show the development of our latest hybrid varieties of domesticated crops, traced back to varieties grown by our forefathers, and wild relatives which may have been foraged by early hunters and gatherers.

Used in this way phylogenetic gardens become living genealogies, mapping the 10,000 generation human interaction with plants, and a valuable gene pool resource. One can organize phylogenetic gardens that feature vegetables, medicinal plants, herbs, aromatic plants and flowers, fruits and berries, nuts, timber species, craft plants and industrial crops, forage plants, edible grains, or endangered species. Phylogenetic gardens may be developed representing the food and economic plants of the Andean bioregion, or any of the 12 world centers of diversity for our food and economic crops.

A PHYLOGENETIC LAYOUT FOR THE PALMS OF THE WORLD DETAILED IN A VIEW FROM THEIR CENTER OF DIVERSITY IN ECUADOR

The major planetary center of diversity for the Palm Superorder is northwestern South America. Examination of the thousands of palms finds them to group into 15 tribes and 38 subtribes. The phylogenetic map developed for the palms of the world illustrates who ls of general made up of rings of species (see illustration). The area of each tribal circle is proportional to the number of species in the tribe. The tribes are clustered into six subfamilies. The smaller filled circles inside the tribal circles represent Ecuadorian genera and these circles are also proportional to their number of species. In this way, the Ecuadorian species of palms are referenced on the planetary background. To completely represent the palms of the world would require three gardens in appropriate climates: a warm humid climate, a warm dry climate, and a cool climate. A phylogenetic garden for the palms would make a beautiful display in any botanical garden.

With the example of a phylogenetic garden for the palms, one can apply the same understanding to the other groups of economic plants that are native or important to Ecuador and the Andean bioregion: pineapple, bananas, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, amaranth, quinoa, beans, papaya, babaco, guava, squash, avocado, coffee, vanilla, cacao, cocaine, quinine, cotton, rubber, mahogany, tree tomato, and countless other major and minor food crops and ethnobotanicals -- all planted in layouts that demonstrate their kinship to related kinds.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PHYLOGENETIC GARDENING LAYOUTS

Phylogenetic gardening layouts are being developed at Peace Seeds, an organic seed company and planetary gene pool resource, located in Corvallis, Oregon. Designating them as Coevolutionary Conservation Gardens and Kinship Gardens, Dr. Alan Kapuler is analyzing the world database of botanical information and developing phylogenetic garden layouts for each of the 40 major groups of plants.

Phylogenetic databases and layouts have been developed and presented at Peace Seeds for a division (conifers), orders (aspargales and araliales), families (solanaceae, the grass family proaceae, and the asteraceae or daisies), a tribe (the heliantheae or sunflowers), and a coevolutionary layout and data base for the 106 orders of flowering plants. These databases are published in the annual Peace Seeds Research Journal (Peace Seeds, 2385 S.E. Thompson St., Corvallis, Oregon 97333 U.S.A.)