Plant Classification

Understanding plant classification, or taxonomy, is important for identifying plants. The scientific classification system with which I am most familiar has its roots in the work Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus (1700s), which categorizes plants based on physical characteristics. The classification system follows a set of rules to place plants into groups or categories in a hierarchical structure to show some relationship. Using a rose as an example, notice that the hierarchy moves from the top level (the plant family) through various categories to a specific rose, Rosa banksiae:

• Kingdom: Plantae (the plant family)
• Division: Magnoliophyta (or Angiosperms – a seed bearing plant, where the seed is not “naked,” but enclosed in ripened ovaries, or fruits)
• Class: Magnoliopsida (or Dicotyledonae – flowering plants that are not grassy or lily-like)
• Order: Rosales (one of the Dicots in the Magnoliopsida class)
• Family: Rosaceae (one of the families in the Rosales order)
• Genera: Rosa (one Genus in the Rosaceae family)
• Species: Rosa banksiae (a specific rose in the Rosa Genus; common name: Lady Bank's Rose)

Rosa banksiae (Lady Bank's Rose) photographed by J.A. Palmer.
New York Public Library, digital library (ID G92F023_026ZF).
This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies
to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its
first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1923.

The scientific classification system has been modified many times over its two-hundred-plus year history, and is still undergoing change. Other systems have been proposed and tried. Many classification changes have been implemented as we learn more about genetics, and see relationships that were not as obvious when relying only on physical plant characteristics. While a new classification system evolves, the Family, Genera, and Species are the most useful categories for gardeners to understand and identify plants.

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

In The History of Gardens, Christopher Thacker explores the idea of the ‘paradise garden’ as being a main element in garden history. The word ‘paradise’ comes from a Persian word pairidaeza, which describes an enclosure, and is applied to a hunting park owned by a king. Similarly, the Hebrew Bible uses pardes to indicate a garden or park enclosure (and to describe the Garden of Eden and a heavenly kingdom), and Greek uses paradeisos to mean a sumptuous, extravagant park meant for a king. The idea of a heavenly kingdom or celestial paradise is picked up later in medieval gardens.

One paradise garden is the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which was reportedly built by King Nebuchadnezzar (605-562 BC) for one of his young wives who missed the lush mountains of her childhood home. The Hanging Gardens are listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The garden is described as being a terraced structure crowned with a park, with substantial underground support system, planted with trees and vegetation, and with a mechanism to bring in water. In the arid climate of what is now Iraq, this would have been a paradise on earth, and an extravagance available only to a king. However, the description we have of this garden is written by Greek and Roman historians, including Diodorus Siculus writing around 50 BC, centuries after the gardens were supposed to have been built (http://www.plinia.net/wonders/gardens/hg4diodorus.html). Archeologists have not found physical evidence of the gardens or the source texts that the later historians may have used, and are skeptical about the technological claims.

Myth or not, this is a great example of a garden being paradise on earth. This is also an interesting garden mystery – why would one of the Seven Wonders be a myth, when the other six exist? Humans have built earth mounds and ziggurats throughout ancient history; ancient seeds have been found on the terraces of excavated ziggurats; water wheels and cork screws were in use as early as 600 BC. Until the mystery is solved, here is some speculative fun.

Part 1: http://youtu.be/mUobrO0EeRI:

Part 2: http://youtu.be/-x5n6nXFGPA

Egyptian Gardens

According to Christopher Thacker in The History of Gardens, the oldest pictures we have of gardens are from gardens in acient Egypt. Two interesting depictions include The Garden of Nebamun on his tomb near Luxor, Egypt from around 1500 B.C.; and Sennefer’s Garden (or Garden of the High Official of Amenhotep) from a fresco on the West Wall of “The Tomb of Vines,” also near Luxor from around 1400 B.C.

In these representations, gardens are no longer natural places, but have design. The gardens are utilitarian, growing food and crops, but they are also places of beauty. Home and garden are now integrated into a unified design, with a collection of buildings and planted areas. The landscape may be aligned on an axis according to the path of the sun, and trees and plants are planted in rows. The garden may be walled, similar to the pleasure gardens that are created later in garden history.

The garden depicted in the Tomb of Nebamun shows a rectangular pond used for fish and waterfowl, and also planted with lotus flowers. Surrounding the pond are many trees, including date palms and fruit trees. The original paintings were cut from tomb walls and later sold to the British Museum.

Nebamun’s Garden: This file is licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

The Garden of the High Official of Amenhotep is an elaborate garden showing several ponds, vines, buildings, and many trees, hedges and flowering plants. The layout is very orderly. It is thought to be an idyllic representation of paradise and the afterlife. Gardens are frequently a symbol for paradise.



Sennefer's Garden: This image was painted from
the tomb by Rosselini in the 19th century. The original
tomb is being restored.