Abstract
The present article has two primary objectives. First, the article provides a historical overview of graphical tools used in the past centuries for summarizing the classification and phylogeny of plants. It is emphasized that each published diagram focuses on only a single or a few aspects of the present and past of plant life on Earth. Therefore, these diagrams are less useful for communicating general knowledge in botanical research and education. Second, the article offers a solution by describing the principles and methods of constructing a lesser- known image type, the coral, whose potential usefulness in phylogenetics was first raised by Charles Darwin. Cladogram topology, phylogenetic classification and nomenclature, diversity of taxonomic groups, geological timescale, paleontological records, and other relevant information on the evolution of Archaeplastida are simultaneously condensed for the first time into the same figure – the Coral of Plants. This image is shown in two differently scaled parts to efficiently visualize as many details as possible, because the evolutionary timescale is much longer, and the extant diversity is much lower for red and green algae than for embryophytes. A fundamental property of coral diagrams, that is their self-similarity, allows for the redrawing of any part of the diagram at smaller scales.
Highlights
Diagrammatic or graphical illustration of contemporary knowledge of life in a single figure has long been sought in biological sciences, in botany
A simpler solution was achieved by modifying and expanding the figures of Bronn and Hitchcock according to the theory of evolution, resulting in the so-called spindle diagrams
The notion that contemporary taxa are endpoints and the branching pattern of the tree refers to their evolutionary past, appeared in Haeckel’s oak-like tree (Figure S16) which be considered the earliest, albeit unintentional and weak, sign of cladistic thinking in the history of biology (Archibald, 2014; Podani, 2017)
Summary
Diagrammatic or graphical illustration of contemporary knowledge of life in a single figure has long been sought in biological sciences, in botany. While classification is always present, morphological or phylogenetic affinities, fossil taxa, the geological timescale, and the diversity of taxonomic groups are never shown simultaneously and reliably. This problem can be resolved using an old/new type of images – the coral. R. Darwin was the first to state that the coral is perhaps a better simile of evolution than trees but new in the sense that its mathematical properties and possibilities of its application in contemporary science have only been introduced and revealed recently. Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae / 2020 / Volume 89 / Issue 3 / Article 8937
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