Isabel Marques' call to update traditional botany teaching beyond plant morphology seems to devalue the importance of taxonomy and systematics (Nature 520, 295; 2015). The identification of new plant species is still as relevant today as the discovery of new genes and gene functions — and is crucial for conservation efforts in developing countries.
Enormous numbers of plant species in Brazil and Madagascar, for example, still await formal description. The skills needed to meet this challenge and their ability to attract funding should not be dismissed. The Brazilian government is already providing funding, although it will be a long time before the Malagasy government can do so.
The botanical community is fast filling the gap between herbarium work and metagenomics, despite dwindling funding (see also M. Kemler Nature 521, 32; 2015).
A good place to start reviving interest in a botanical education, and hence strengthen this community, would be to include striking plant species such as Rafflesia and Sarracenia in televised nature programmes, rather than focusing on charismatic megafauna.
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Trias-Blasi, A., Vorontsova, M. Plant identification is key to conservation. Nature 521, 161 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/521161c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/521161c
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