Flowering Plant Kinds Research

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While I have your attention, I would like to introduce my own personal research project. Most work in Created Kinds has dealt with animals with an emphasis on the Ark Kinds. My university training dealt more with botany than zoology so I have undertaken the task of developing method(s) to determine plant kinds.

The unique feature of Angiosperms, flowering plants, is the flower itself. It is typically composed of four parts including the calyx, corolla, androecium, and gynoecium. While there are multiple ways to convey the various forms and features in these parts, I have chosen the floral formula because it is a concise mathematical representation of the flower parts and it can quickly and easily be compared in a long list of proposed kinds. The floral formula has existed for over a century, but it has never been popular even with botanists. As such, a standardized form of notation has not been established nor has it been well developed. In my research, I have had to add new symbols and notation to fill in the details that might be needed to distinguish created Kinds.

Questions and Testing Procedure

This method of checking for discontinuity opened up many questions about possible outcomes and predictions. One of the larger questions raised is where to draw the line between having a large kind with much variation and where to find multiple kinds with a common design element.

For example, evolutionary theory states that the spathe and spadix developed once and then diversified. However, the Araceae family is extremely diverse with much variation in the floral formula. Can the Jack-in-the-pulpit (a woodland plant) be the same kind as the skunk cabbage (a swamp plant with rare endothermic properties)?.

A major test involves large families with minor variations in the formula, such as with orchids. Can this large family with many species and broad hybridization be broken down into at least 3 and possibly as many as 5 unique kinds which share a common design element we recognize as being an orchid?

What happens if two identical or very similar formula are encountered such as with the Solanaceae and Convolvulacea. Do two separate potential kinds have the same formula (goes against the hypothesis). Or does this suggest one large kind as potentially evidenced by similar unique chemistry found in both families but not found in other plants?

If correct, this method also gives ground to suggest that modern reclassification (regrouping) based on genetic sequencing (rather than morphology) is actually making cladistics worse rather than better.

Can complex and specified information be found by using each possible formula once and once only? Evolution would probably favor the most energy economical form many times rather than make each type different.

Hypothesis and Early Results

My hypothesis is fairly simple and straightforward. Each unique Floral Formula should represent a separate Created Kind. All of the species within that kind are expected to have the same formula. A primary test of this formula is determining that all hybrids occur within a given formula and that no hybrids occur between plants with different formulas. A relatively simple and straightforward floral formula suggests that a kind is well defined and delineated from other kinds. A more complicated floral formula with many elements, suggests a poorly defined kind which is in need of more work.

Thus far, over 100 Floral Formula have been developed alongside a plant hybrid database. At this time, no findings have contradicted the initial hypothesis. Hybridization comparisons have followed these lines surprisingly well. The expected list of possible combinations is filling up with no significant repeats or overlaps. Much research remains to be done, but so far the results are encouraging.

This page is under construction. My apologies for any misspellings, repeated text, missing references, etc. Please visit again later for a more complete treatment of this topic.