The Living World - Notes (Class 11) - Part 3 Taxonomic Aids

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1. THE LIVING WORLD


TAXONOMIC AIDS


a. Herbarium

It is a store house (repository) of plant specimens that are dried, pressed and preserved on sheets and are arranged according to universally accepted classification.

Herbarium sheets are labelled with information about date and place of collection, English, local and botanical names, family, collector’s name etc.

b. Botanical gardens

These are specialized gardens having collections of living plants for reference and identification.

Each plant is labelled with its botanical name and family.

Famous botanical gardens:
  • Royal Botanical Garden at Kew (England).
  • Indian Botanical Garden, Howrah (India).
  • At National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow (India).

c. Biological Museum

It is a collection of preserved plants and animals for study and reference.

A museum contains
  • Specimens preserved in preservative solutions in containers or jars.
  • Preserved dry specimens of plants and animals.
  • Insects preserved in insect boxes after collecting, killing and pinning.
  • Stuffed larger animals like birds and mammals.
  • Collections of animal skeletons.

d. Zoological Parks (Zoos)

These are the places where live wild animals are kept in protected environments under human care.

It helps to learn about their food habits and behaviour.

e. Key

It is an analytical method of identification of organisms based on similarities and dissimilarities.

It is based on the contrasting characters generally in a pair called couplet.

Each couplet has two opposite options. Of these, only relevant option is accepted and other is rejected.

Each statement in the key is called a lead.

Flora, manuals, monographs & catalogues

Flora: Actual account of habitat and distribution of plant species of a given area.

Manuals: The record that contains information for identification of names of species found in an area.

Monographs: The records that contain information on any one taxon.

Catalogue: Alphabetical list of species.

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