Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) in jeopardy – Where have the flowers gone?
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Plant Science, Taxonomy
- Keywords
- APG, Angiosperm Phylogeny, Flowering Plant Systematics, Boraginales
- Copyright
- © 2015 Cole
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2015. Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) in jeopardy – Where have the flowers gone? PeerJ PrePrints 3:e1238v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1238v1
Abstract
The Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) is a loose assemblage of systematic botanists aiming to establish a stable, modern classification system of flowering plants strongly based on molecular phylogenetics. The group published three seminal papers starting in 1998. An update to be entitled "APG IV" is in preparation and due shortly. A survey was conducted among systematic botanists in the forefront of this project, the results of which were recently published. The author of this Opinion Piece comments on the concept, evaluation, and results of this survey, and on the advice provided by the initiators, in particular regarding the order Boraginales. Expert opinion should be favored over a general majority vote on suggestive questions of an uncoordinated survey conducted by a single "authority". Science is based on knowledge and on scholarly expertise, and should not be made a matter of popular votes and majority preferences.
Author Comment
This is an Opinion Piece on the future of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG) and a critique of a recent survey conducted by a few members of that group who are providing advice to the APG IV update chiefly on the basis of a majority vote obtained from that survey. The case of Boraginales is emphasized.