A systematic survey of floral nectaries

Abstract

The construction of classifications, as well as the understanding of biological diversity, depends upon a careful comparison of attributes of the organisms studied (Stuessy, 1990). It is widely known that data from diverse sources showing differences from taxon to taxon are of systematic significance. Dur-ing the 20th century, systematists have emphasized that their discipline involves a synthesis of all knowledge (Stevens, 1994) or, in other words, the variation of as many relevant characters as possible should be incorporated into the natural system to be constructed. The extent to which particular characters are constant or labile will determine their usefulness to syste-matics. In general, more conservative characters will be valuable in defining families and orders, whereas more labile characters may be useful at the ge-neric and specific levels (Webb, 1984). There is no doubt that floral characters are among the most used in the classification of flowering plants. At the same time, they constitute essential features in diagnostic keys to taxa in both taxonomic treatments and Floras (Cronquist, 1981, 1988).