Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Friday - June 27, 2008

From: New Braunfels , TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: User Comments
Title: Plant database correct!
Answered by: Damon Waitt

QUESTION:

Wrong taxonomy for bald cypress tree family in your plant database?

ANSWER:

Wrong may be too strong a word given that botanists are constantly reclassifying species based on new evidence. At one time the Taxodiaceae was regarded as a distinct plant family comprised of ten genera, including Taxodium spp. More recent research including genetic evidence supports the movement of all genera (with the exception of Sciadopitys) previously assigned to the Taxodiaceae into the family Cupressaceae. To learn more about the reclassification of the Genera belonging to the Taxodiaceae visit the Cupressaceae family description in The Gymnosperm Database. If you want to "really" learn more, read this article:

Phylogenetic relationships in Taxodiaceae and Cupressaceae sensu stricto based on matK gene, chlL gene, trnL-trnF IGS region, andtrnL intron sequences