Ginger (Zingiber officinale) belongs to the Monocotyledones, or Liliopsida, class. According to many sources, such as Biology (Campbell), this grouping is not technically a class, but more a general grouping, due to the difficulty in classifying the enormous number of flowering plants. This class also includes important human crops and ornamental plants and can be distinguished from the other major division of flowering plants, dicots, in several ways.
Class: Monocotyledones
Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is an angiosperm, a flowering plant, and belongs to the monocotyledons, one of the two major divisions of flowering plant. Phylum and class are difficult to distinguish for this particular group of organisms, due to the sheer diversity of flowering plants. However, the angiosperms can be recognized as the phylum, with the monocotyledons in the next organizational subgroup. Thus, ginger can be considered in the class of Monocotyledons, also called Liliopsida.
Shaky Classification
Classes, as with other taxonomic divisions of species, are not purely objective but based on the opinions of well-versed botanists and other scientists based on available evidence. Thus, categorizations have changed as our knowledge grows. For example, Linnaeus, the founder of taxonomy, classified certain species together without regard for their degree of relatedness, because relatedness between species was not a concept he believed in. Later, once evolution was recognized, species were grouped by whether they had evolved from a common ancestor.
Taxonomy
The current taxonomic tree of ginger can be considered as follows: Kingdom, Plantae; Phylum,Angiospermae (division: Anthophyta); Class, Monocotyledones (Liliopsida); Order, Zingiberanae; Family, Zingiberaceae; Genus, Zingiber; Species, Officinale.
Class Members
Monocots encompass some of the most important domesticated human crops. Other members of the class Monocotyledons include grasses, grains (corn, wheat, rice), sugar cane, bananas, lilies, orchids, palms and onions. Monocots include the following orders: Liliales (lilies), Asparagales (hyacinths, orchids, asparagus), Pandanales, Dioscoreales and Arecanae (palms).
Class Characteristics
Monocotyledons (monocots) are one of the two major groups of flowering plants (angiosperms). The name comes from "mono," meaning one, and "cotyledon," the first leaf of a seedling which nourishes the plant, similar in function to the yolk sac of an egg. Dicots, the other major group, have two cotyledons.
Distinguishing Monocots from Dicots
Monocots can be easily distinguished from dicots by examining their leaves. Monocots generally have leaves with parallel veins, such as lawn grass, while dicots have netlike veins, such as holly. Monocots also generally have fibrous roots systems, while dicots have tap roots, a large central root; and monocot petals are usually in multiples of three, while dicot petals are usually in multiples of four or five. For example, ginger's flowers are three-petaled.
References
- Tree of Life Web Project: Monocotyledons
- The Healing Herbs; Michael Castleman; 1995
- Biology; Neil A. Campbell; 1996
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