An herbiary of plant individuality
Language
en
Article de revue
This item was published in
Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology. 2018, vol. 10, p. 1-24
Michigan Publishing
English Abstract
Questioning the nature of individuality has a long a rich history, both in philosophy and in biology. Because they differ in several features from the pervasive vertebrate-human model, plants have been considered as ...Read more >
Questioning the nature of individuality has a long a rich history, both in philosophy and in biology. Because they differ in several features from the pervasive vertebrate-human model, plants have been considered as complicating the question. Here, the various plant species on which authors—whether biologists or philosophers—rely to build the picture of plant individuality are examined and tracked for their peculiarities, thus constituting an “herbiary” of plant individuality.The herbiary of plant individuality has as its members species exhibiting a diverse collection of traits and illustrating different questions related to plant individuality.This essay assesses the peculiarity of the features of these plants and the reality of their differences from animals. Because some plant features are supposed to pose a threat to individual genetic homogeneity, higher heterogeneity has been assumed for plants compared to animals.Moreover, individual plants are sometimes identified with communities. How does this supposed heterogeneity appear in particular species? Cultivated plants exhibit distinctive diversity, and their overrepresentation in the study of plant diversity might bias the way plant individuality is understood. Just as there is a vertebrate bias, there may also be a cultivated plant bias. Recent results bring plants much closer to animals in terms of cellular functioning, so plants might not be so different from animals with respect to their diversity, and consequently their individuality.Read less <
Keywords
plants
genetics
English Keywords
individuality
heterogeneity
cultivated plants
Origin
Hal imported