Folk classification systems

[Monique D. Reed]

I seem to remember reading about the plant classification system of
indigenous people in a mountainous region of China  (an area with a
staggering number of angiosperm taxa.)  The system used provided a
multiple part name (often only binomial) for each species of useful
plant.  The interesting thing is that species were not grouped by
morphological similarities, but by medicinal or other practical
value.  Thus, all the plants used to reduce fever had part of their names
in common, etc.  Perhaps not very useful for a systematist, but what
a treasure trove of information for the pharmacologist and the
ehthno-botanist!

Monique Reed
monique at bio.tamu.edu
http://www.isc.tamu.edu/FLORA/reedhome.html