Plant Systematics

by Michael G. Simpson

Plant Systematics is a comprehensive and beautifully illustrated text, covering the most up-to-date and essential paradigms, concepts, and terms required for a basic understanding of plant systematics. This book contains numerous cladograms that illustrate the evolutionary relationships of major plant groups, with an emphasis on the adaptive significance of major evolutionary novelties. It provides descriptions and classifications of major groups of angiosperms, including over 90 flowering plant families; a comprehensive glossary of plant morphological terms, as well as appendices on botanical illustration and plant descriptions. Pedagogy includes review questions, exercises, and references that complement each chapter. This text is ideal for graduate and undergraduate students in botany, plant taxonomy, plant systematics, plant pathology, ecology as well as faculty and researchers in any of the plant sciences.

Genres: Science, Plants, Nonfiction, Nature, Biology, Academic, Reference

608 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Marianna Vasile · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that every botanist should have. I loved it as a student and I keep using very often!

[Sophie Wieland · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's probably odd to review textbooks, but I just have to take a moment to extol the glossary of this behemoth of a book - lovely, concise, & understandable!

[Yanick Punter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much details for me

[Jude Reiter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a required textbook for the plant taxonomy class I took, and it is certainly highly informative and a great resource if you wish to get into learning about plants.

[Gwen Baird · Rating 2 out of 5]

Regular degular textbook that shoves info down your throat

[Paige McLoughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Botany is so complicated with so many varieties, so many subtle differences between families and species. Way harder than physics simply because physics has a fundamental simplicity, but botany has endless variety. My mind has a hard time wrapping around the multitude of plants out there. The book tries to tame the subject, but I will be reading this stuff over and over again until I get even a rudimentary grasp.

Update 4/5/2022 still understand only the basics, but it is worth trying to get better.

Reread 11/30/2025

I dip into this book from time to time. I feel I understand a little of the basics, but my plant identification skills need a lot of work. I am not good at noticing subtle morphological differences.