Floristry (science)
The floristry , also floristic geobotany , is the science of the flora of an area.
Contents of floristic research
The main areas of floristic research are:
- The complete recording of the flora in a certain area and its documentation. The composition of the plant species found is called flora . For each species, more detailed information on the place of discovery (the location where a plant was found), the location (the ecological conditions at the place of discovery) and morphological information is given. From the information on the location one can draw conclusions about the demands of the species, i.e. its ecology .
- For example, the distribution map of hazel root in France, in which the accumulated occurrences are marked with darker colors, shows a clear focus in the east, namely in the Jura , where the evidence of finds is shown as far as Switzerland. Further, it takes a greater incidence in the Champagne before, as well as in Alsace , while the way in the intervening Vosges , which mainly of crystalline bedrock or red sandstone are constructed feedstocks on which acidic soils bilden- missing conspicuous. According to Oberdorfer, the hazel root occurs on " mostly calcareous " soils and has a distribution focus in the " eastern deciduous forests " of Europe or Eurasia, which is reflected in the occurrence on the western edge of its overall distribution area.
- Addressing difficult species and delimiting critical small species . A clan is first described on the basis of morphological characteristics. Further distinctions can be made e.g. B. be of a biochemical nature. In some cases, critical small species also differ from one another with regard to their ecological requirements. One then speaks of ecotypes of a species.
The geographical distribution of a species is shown, among other things, in dot grid maps , in which it is noted whether a species occurs, for example, on a certain measuring table sheet of the topographic map 1: 25,000. For a finer gradation, the occurrence in a certain quadrant of a measuring table sheet can also be recorded. This work leads from floristry to area studies.
In geobotany, floristry is an indispensable prerequisite for research into vegetation. Together with faunistics , its counterpart in the field of zoology, it is also one of the most important foundations of biocenology and biodiversity research . In the recent past, floristry has become of particular importance for environmental and nature conservation , as it (with faunistics) forms the basis for biomonitoring . With modern statistical methods, environmental changes can often be determined based on the change in species composition. Examples of this are lichens , which are used as indicator organisms for certain environmental conditions, in particular air quality. Mosses are used as bio-indicators for water quality, for atmospheric nitrogen or for climate changes.
Adventitious floristry
In vascular plants, neophyte research is a current area for which floristry forms an essential basis.
As Adventivfloristik refers to the specific part of botany that deals with floristic aspects of adventitious and neophytes concerned.
Adventitious floristry began in the middle of the 19th century with the targeted recording of previously unknown types of plants, which appeared with remarkable frequency in traffic and trading areas as well as in the vicinity of wool combing or rubble sites. In a second phase, which was shaped by the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle , among others , these species were systematized . At the turn of the 20th century, the Swiss botanist Albert Thellung decisively shaped this branch of botany. He dealt in detail with the role of humans in the introduction and distribution of non-native plants (so-called hemerochory ) in the Montpellier area .
After the end of the Second World War, there was a mass spread of non-native species in the war-torn cities of Central Europe. As a result, the botanist Charles Sutherland Elton dealt with the effects of biological invasions and published in 1958 in his work " Ecology of Invasions of Animals and Plants ". Since the mid-1980s, the number of publications in this field, which - if it also includes other organisms such as fungi and animals - is known as invasive biology, has increased sharply.
Origin of the name
A botanist who devotes himself to floristry is called a florist . Carl von Linné used the term floristae as early as 1725 for his contemporaries who wrote Floren and who dealt with the spatial recording of plants. One of the first flora in this sense was the Sylva hercynia , the Flora des Harzes written by Johannes Thal in 1577 , which differed from all herbal books written up to that point in that it was not limited to medicinal plants, but tried all the plants that were found to capture and describe. Johannes Thal is therefore considered the " father of floristry ". In the past as now, florists are, in addition to the relatively few specialist botanists, often very knowledgeable amateur botanists, including teachers, pharmacists, pastors, but also people with professions far removed from the natural sciences.
Since around 1965, the term florist has been used in another sense, namely as a job title for florists and flower makers . The Duden of 1967 defines florists as "explorers of flora". From the 17th edition 1973 onwards, “flower ties” are also given. In English, however, a distinction is made between " floristics ", the scientific floristry and " floristry ", the craft.
literature
- Herder Lexicon of Biology . Spectrum Heidelberg-Berlin-Oxford. Volume 3, page 354, 1994.
- Karl Mägdefrau : history of botany. Life and Achievement of Great Researchers. 2nd edition Gustav Fischer Verlag Stuttgart-Jena-New York 1992.
- Ilse Jahn (Ed.): History of Biology. 3rd edition (on "Floristik", especially pages 182 ff and 306 ff.) Spectrum Heidelberg-Berlin. 2000.
- Gerhard Wagenitz : About the word anointing . In: Journal for German Linguistics. Volume 30, Issue 2, 2002, pp. 252-257.
- Wolfgang Frey and Rainer Lösch : Textbook of Geobotany. Plant and vegetation in space and time . 2nd edition Elsevier Munich. 2004.
- Charles S. Elton: The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants. 181 S. University of Chicago Press. 2000 (1st edition 1958). ISBN 978-0226206387 .
- Ingo Kowarik : Biological Invasions. Neophytes and Neozoa in Central Europe. Ulmer, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8001-3924-3 .
