Classification

 Kingdom- Plantae

In order to be considered a part of this group an organism needs to have undergone a secondary endosymbiosis of a chloroplast, or, in other words, it has to have engulfed a specialized bacteria that is able to perform photosynthesis. This is important because photosynthesis is the general mechanism that makes the large amount of the usable energy that organisms here on Earth rely on to survive! As a result of having this chloroplast, the plants are able to make their own food (chemical energy) from light energy. To learn more about photosynthesis and how it works click here. The first endosymbiosis was one shared by many different organisms (including us!), and that is where the cell engulfed a different bacteria that has now evolved into the organelle we call the mitochondria. The mitochondria is like the battery of the cell, and its function is to break down the chemical food that was made through photosynthesis. This is important because now the food is able to be converted into actual energy the plant can use to grow! So this means that plants have both the ability to make their own food from light and convert their food into usable energy.

Subkingdom- Tracheobionta

This group of plants is known as the vascular plants. This means that they have developed a specific vascular system (like a bunch of reinforced tubes) to help transport nutrients and water throughout the plant. The special tubes are called xylem and phloem, where xylem is used to transport the water and phloem is used to transport the nutrients and sugars! To here more about xylem and phloem and what their function is in Aconitum napellus click here!

Super Division- Spermatophyta

This group of plants is more commonly called the seed plants. This means that the plants have gone from having  spores as their primary form of dispersal to having seeds! These seeds are especially important in that they have protection for the plant embryo that was not available to it before. They have a special seed coat made of a protein called lignin that offers extra protection to the ovule. There is also a special tissue called endosperm inside the seed which is full of nutrients and helps provide the energy for the plant embryo as it first starts to grow. This small amount of stored food leaves the the plant embryo with just enough energy to divide and make its own set of roots and leaves so that it can begin photosynthesizing and making its own food.

Division- Magnoliophyta/Angiophyta

These are the flowering plants. These plants are special in that they make flowers as part of their reproductive process! These often help to attract special pollinators which in turn help to spread out the pollen of the flower to different areas, aiding in reproduction and the spreading out of genes. Also, these flowers are what give rise to the different delicious fruits we eat. These fruits are actually a special adaptation by the plant to help them get their seeds more widely dispersed. The fruit actually is an adapted form of the plant's ovary. Plants make the fruit surrounding the seeds, so that when other animals come to eat the fruit they are inadvertantly eating the seeds too! Then once the fruit material has passed through and been digested by the animal the seeds eventually come out in its feces, usually in a different spot than where they started. This is a perfect adaptation to help combat the problem of plants being mainly stationary, and it helps to spread the seeds over relatively wide areas. This also is helpful in that the feces works as perfect fertilizer for the new growing plant to get some starting nutrients from!

Class- Magnoliopsida

This class of plants is more often called the Dicotyledons (Dicots) or the Eudicots. This place represents the separation of the Eudicots from the Monocots, and each of the two groups have very distinctive morphological differences that make identification easy. To the left is a diagram I made briefly summarizing the differences between the two based on an image I found on another informational website. To see the original diagram click here.

Subclass- Magnoliidae

Flowers in this class generally have simple pistils (the female part of the flower), and there are often many spiraled perianth parts. The flower stamens are both free and numerous, and pollen structure is usually relatively primative.

Order- Ranunculales

These plants undergo successive microsporogenesis, have irregular stamen arrangement in their flowers, have more than 2 ovules/carpel in, have similar rbcl, atpB, and 185 r DNA data, and also have a micropyle that is formed from both integuments.

Family- Rununculaceae

In this family the organisms have parianths and stamens in numbers of 3. Similar structures are found opposite each other in the flower, and the nuclear endosperm outer perianth members have 3 or more vascular traces. They also have a non-tuberous rhizome, and an outer integument 4 or more cells thick.

Genus- Aconitum

This grouping is based off of similarities in morphology between the organisms along with similarities in the toxic chemicals produced by the plants. To learn more about the chemicals produced in Aconitum  and their effects click here.


Species- Aconitum napellus

This species of Aconitum is the main focus of this website, and it can be differentiated based largely upon its habitat along with flower color and other morphological differences. If you want to learn more about Aconitum napellus then you have come to the right place!


Phylogenetic Trees

Here is a different way to look at the classification of this species.

Below I have made two phylogenetic trees that help to show the relationships Aconitum napellus has with many other groups of organisms.

The first tree is the ordering of the relationships of different plants very closely related to Aconitum napellus. This tree is an adapted version from a tree determined through a study by Ms. Wei Wang and associates. The tree was determined based on a combination of morphological and molecular data. The main parts of the genome analyzed for classification were plasted rbcL, matK, trnL-F, and nuclear ribosomal RNA. To go to this study directly to read more click here. The red labeled parts of the tree represent the groups A. napellus is directly a part of. To see the tree more zoomed in click on it!



The second tree is more of a broad view of the relationships between all plant types and even gives reference to the relations shared with different types of algae. This tree is made based on synapomorphic traits such as vascularity vs. non-vascularity and monocot vs. dicot. For a bigger view click on the image! Also, to see each image used for the collage individually, click on the letters above them.

a        b        c          d            e             f          g                h          i         j       k       l        m      n         o        p

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