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A SUMMING UP
Author(s) -
Turner B. L.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
taxon
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1996-8175
pISSN - 0040-0262
DOI - 10.2307/1221568
Subject(s) - systematics , sensu , cladistics , asteraceae , epistemology , genealogy , biology , evolutionary biology , data science , computer science , history , ecology , taxonomy (biology) , philosophy , phylogenetics , genus , biochemistry , gene
Summary The so‐called generic problems within the Asteraceae of today are surprisingly like those of 50 years ago, and earlier. It is conjectured that, so long as plant systematics remains an individual enterprise, classifications and their concomitant nomenclatures will vary, depending upon the worker, his background, interests, training and idiosyncrasies. What then can we anticipate as generic guidelines for the near future? Unfortunately there are none: systematics is an intellectual activity and intellects are a mixed bag. However, data accumulation and its numerical application, cladistic or otherwise, must ultimately prevail, so that reasonable generic stability in the far future can be anticipated. This will result as epigenetic choices (sensu Lumsden and Wilson, 1981) become established among both practitioners and users. Such a concensus has largely occurred in ornithology and is likely to prevail in synantherology given time, interest and human survival.