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

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.

Select Next Topic 👇

• Topic 1: Properties of Living Organisms
• Topic 2: Diversity in the Living World
• Topic 3: Taxonomic Aids

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