Schriften zu Genetischen Ressourcen - Genres

Development of Vavilov’s concept of the intraspecific classification of cultivated plants
Development of Vavilov’s concept of the intraspecific classification
of cultivated plants: case studies in genera of the Fabaceae family
T. SMEKALOVA 1
Introduction
Until recently, the term systematics has been used synonymously with the term taxonomy,
even by biologists. However, the doctrine of classification of organisms is
only one of several purposes of systematics. Plant classification begins from their inventory,
or cataloguing, by identification, and ends with the assignment of the plants
to certain taxa. Another element of systematics is nomenclature, i.e., choosing or
establishing the correct scientific plant name in accordance with the nomenclatural
system. The next and the most important purpose of systematics is the construction
of a modern phylogenetic, genealogical system, to reflect the affinity between taxa of
different ranks and the evolution of the plant world.
Ultimately, the main task of a taxonomist is to find the single right place in the evolutionary
system for the taxa he/she deals with. To achieve this aim, an the taxonomist
needs expertise knowledge of many different branches of biology.
When analysing the development of plant systematics from the period of construction
of artificial to natural and, finally, to modern phylogenetic systems, two stages can be
distinguished within the last period: the stage of “population systematics, based on
the interpretation of the species as a complex of local populations”, and the stage of
“creation of synthetic systems”, i.e., the making-up of systems by a synthesis or
combination of different approaches (MELIKYAN 1984).
The crucial problem of not only plant systematics, but also biology in general, is the
concept of the basic taxonomic category, i.e., the species, especially its circumscription
and structure. According to VAVILOV, “the history of systematics of cultivated
plants is illuminative. It shows how a scientist had to change his view of the species
step by step”. The concept of the species changes, “depending on the level of development
of the biological science, the purposes of systematisation and the methodology
of a researcher” (KONAREV 1995). There were differences in the circumscription
of species, which led to an extensive discussion, and even a struggle in the 1930-50s
(ROZANOVA 1946) between the proponents of “macro-” and “microspecies”, that is,
1 N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry (VIR)
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Bolshaya Morskaya St. 42
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