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Photos provided by Rainbow Treecare Scientific Advancements Taxonomy lets us know how species are related. referring to the pointy leaves of maples and rubrum is Latin for "red." our experience on native green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvatica) may give us Names can honorary, as in the case of twinflower, Linnae borealis, the only insights that make the job easier and safer. Closely related species are also plant Linnaeus ever named for himself.They can also signify a place of often susceptible to the same issues,thus we are employing taxonomy when origin or habitat as in the Japanese beetle, Popilla japonica. Finally, they can we avoid planting an Austrian pine where a Scots pine just died if we susbe simply named using a historical/ancient pect pine wilt nematode was the cause.When name.Names like ginkgo,quercus,and fraxwe are developing a new rate for a speciesinus are all cultural names that existed before specific treatment, such as a tree growth this classification system. regulator, we look to known rates on their Ranks of Family and higher are comrelatives as the starting point. monly named for a marquee member of Knowing taxonomy helps not only with that group.Apples, pears and serviceberry managing trees,but the pests of trees as well. are all members of the Roseaceae (the rose Many of the tools we use to combat insect family) but that doesn't signify that these and fungal pests are specific to a limited trees evolved from the rose, per se, but that group.For example,the neonicotinoids,such all these species share a common ancestor. as imidacloprid,will easily control insects in While haters of taxonomy say it's a practhe Hymenoptera, Hemiptera and tice akin to stamp collecting, in truth, this Coleoptera Orders but are not effective on simple act of attempting to organize life led Knowing taxonomy can help guide our management strategies. insects in the Order Lepidoptera.This is liketo all the great discoveries of biology.Linnaeus ly due to a common ancestor of modern was not organizing his chart by evolutionary descent, just by similar mor- moths and butterflies developing a neuro pathway different than the other phological characteristics.Charles Darwin looked at the system and wondered insects.They lack the same binding sites in their brains that make them sushow all these different species came about.He came up with The Origin of ceptible to the neonicotinoid treatments. If you were looking to protect Species by Natural Selection and reorganized the catalog by shared ances- an oak tree from both gypsy moth (a Lepidopteran insect) and two-lined try. His theories led 20th-Century biologists to discover DNA as the chestnut borer (a Coleopteran insect) with one treatment,your knowledge mechanism of change, and they are reorganizing the chart again. It is said of taxonomy will help you select a treatment effective for both. that nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution, and Taxonomy provides the organization and the standardization that there would be no theory of evolution without taxonomy. was necessary to understand the differences and similarities of life. Great for the Ivory Tower of Science, but how useful is this to us in Although natural science students around the world will continue to arboriculture? For starters, the common naming system serves tree care dread the memorization of this seemingly foreign language, it is one of professionals as well as it does scientists."Cedar" is one of those common the cornerstones of the science of arboriculture. Now, if we can just get names that applies to dozens of different species,so having a lexicon to dis- homeowners to stop calling all evergreens "pines"... tinguish a Thuja from a Juniperus from a Cedrus from a Calcocedrus is very handy.As a general rule, closely related plants have similar characteristics, Brandon Gallagher Watson is director of communications at Rainbow Treecare so even if we have never pruned a Manchurian ash (Fraxinus mandshurica), Scientific Advancements, and is an ISA Certified Arborist (#MN-4086A). www.arborage.com Arbor Age / January/February 2013 11