Plant clan

Plant clans are used in botany for systematic units of the plant world that represent a natural kinship unit, regardless of rank. Ideally, each clan corresponds to a taxon (species, genus, family, order), but the term is not fixed to any particular rank in the hierarchical order of the clan system, but describes the systematic classification in general.

The term is mostly only used for lower grades, so it can describe varieties , forms or breeding varieties . The term enables units to be grouped together before the taxonomic classification has been clarified or as long as it is unclear.

A bastard clan is the name given to a group of forms that has arisen through bastardization and whose individuals cannot therefore be precisely assigned.

The totality of all plant families in an area is called its flora .

Web links

• Walter Sudhaus: Systematics - Reconstruction of the tribal history. Spectrum Akademischer Verlag / Wissenschaft-online.de, accessed on May 20, 2008 .