-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Nigel Chaffey, Plant Cuttings, Annals of Botany, Volume 113, Issue 6, May 2014, Pages iii–vi, https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcu080
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
Cause for optimism (maybe not …)
As an ‘old-fashioned’ botanist my heart was gladdened to see that Number 1 in the ‘Top 10 most viewed Plant Science research articles in 2013’ from Frontiers in Plant Science[1] was one that dealt with fundamental botany of the taxonomic kind. The paper in question was entitled ‘Angiosperm-like pollen and Afropollis from the Middle Triassic (Anisian) of the Germanic Basin (Northern Switzerland)’ and was written by Peter Hochuli and Susanne Feist-Burkhardt[2]. Whilst that recognition may engender a feel-good view that plant taxonomy is doing rather well, Quentin Wheeler's timely New Phytologist Commentary, ‘Are reports of the death of taxonomy an exaggeration?’[3] offers a more cautious interpretation. Commenting upon an article by Daniel Bebber et al.[4], he concludes that plant taxonomy (though one suspects taxonomy of all biota fares as badly) is still in desperate need of greater attention – in terms of people to undertake the work and appropriate funding – as befits its importance to a true appreciation of the planet's biodiversity and the inter-relationships between living things. Sadly, this state of affairs is unlikely to be helped by news that the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (London, UK[5]) – one of the wold's premier centres of plant taxonomic endeavour – is in the midst of a funding crisis[6]. Indeed, the situation is apparently so bad that ‘about 125 jobs could be cut as … Kew … faces a £5m shortfall in revenue in the coming financial year’[7]. This must be particularly concerning since it comes shortly after news that visitor numbers to Kew increased by 29 % last year compared to 2012[8]. And this bad news on the plant taxonomy front is echoed in the USA where ‘too few scientists are being trained in agriculture areas of science’[9]. So, there's an insufficiency of people to grow the new crops that aren't being identified because of the dearth of plant taxonomists. Where will it all end..? [If you're not put off by the precarious state of life as a taxonomist and want a little bit more of a career insight, then you could do much worse that read Elisabeth Pain's ‘Science Careers’ article[10]. And for a welcome boost to publicising the plight of the endangered species know as Taxonomus non-vulgaris var. biologicus, see Tim Entwisle's news article in The Guardian[11] – Ed.]
