Taxonomical Aids

• The biologists have developed many methods and techniques that help in taxonomic studies. These are known as taxonomical aids.

• Taxonomic studies are useful in agriculture, forestry, Industry and knowing our bio-resources and their diversity.

• Types of taxonomical aids as follows;

1. Herbariums (preserved plants)

2. Botanical garden (protected live plants)

3. Museums (Preserved animals)

4. Zoological Parks (protects live animals)

5. Keys (information based on character).

6. Recording Descriptions.

1.1 Herbarium:

• Herbar means a collection of preserved plant specimens.

• Herbarium is a storehouse of collected plant specimens that are dried and mounted on a preserved sheet or on a nylon sheet.

• Few plant materials are preserved in alcohol or in preservatives like formalin.

• Herbarium sheet carry some label information as follows;

• Brief description of plant

• Date and place of collection

• English, Local and botanical names

• Family

• Plant specimen Collector’s name

• Ex: National Herbarium, Netherland; United States National Herbarium; Central National Herbarium, Howrah, West Bengal.

1.2 Botanical Garden:

• A botanical garden is a garden dedicated to the collection, cultivation, preservation and display of a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names.
• Few plant species threaten and endanger protected under human care in the botanical garden.
• Ex: Kew Botanical garden (England); Indian Botanical Garden (Howrah, West Bengal); National botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, UP; and Lalbagh Botanical Garden (Bangalore, KA).

1.3 Museum:

• It is also called a Biological Museum.

• These museums have collections of preserved plants and animals for study and reference.

• Insects are preserved in insect boxes after collecting, killing and pinning.

• Few museums have collections of skeletons of animals too.

• Ex: Biological Science Museum, Australia; National Museum of Natural History, Delhi.

1.4 Zoological Parks:

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

• This is helping us to learn about wild animal’s food habits, behaviour and taxonomy.

• Ex: Mysore Zoo, and Bannerghatta National Park, Bangalore, KA.

1.5 Key:

• It is also known as a Biological Key or Taxonomic Key.

• Key is a taxonomic tool used for identification of plants and animals based on characteristics.

• Each option in a key represents a pair of contrasting characters of an organism. This is known as Couplet.

• Each statement in the key is called a lead.

1.6 Recording Descriptions:

It refers to the process of documenting or describing something in detail, often through written or verbal means of a specimen.

• Flora: It contains habitat and distribution of plants in a particular area.

• Manuals: they are useful in providing information for identification of species found in an area.

• Monographs: It contains information on any one species or one genus.

• Catalogues: It is also known as biological catalogues. It contains pictures, classification and brief information of organisms.

• Fauna: It contains a particular region, habitat or geological period of animals.