Types of classification

Taxonomic entities have historically been classified in three fundamentally different ways. Artificial classification groups organisms using just one or two easily-observed, convenient characters (e.g. Linnaeus grouping plants purely by stamen number), which is quick to apply but frequently throws unrelated plants together while separating close relatives. Natural classification instead weighs the OVERALL similarity across many morphological characters (e.g. Bentham and Hooker), giving a far more defensible arrangement, though it is still not built to reflect evolutionary descent. Phylogenetic classification goes a step further and arranges taxa specifically to reflect their evolutionary ancestry and relationships (e.g. Engler …