Crime Pays but Botany Doesn’t

犯罪能获利，但植物学不能

SO YOU WANT TO TEACH YOURSELF BOTANY…I frequently get messages from people who really want to teach themselves botany and learn exactly where the fuck to start identifying plants and learning about them. The field is full of intimidating words (as well as some powdery stiffs, like much of Academia) and a confusing lexicon that can be a turn off to the layperson. 所以你想自学植物学……我经常收到一些人的私信，他们非常想自学植物学，想知道到底该从哪里入手去识别植物并了解它们。这个领域充满了令人望而生畏的术语（还有一些像学术界大部分地方一样古板僵化的人），以及让外行感到困惑的词汇。

I’m telling you this though - don’t be intimidated. With the internet, you have 24 hour access to the library. Use it. Ask questions. See a word you don’t understand? Look it up. Read about a concept that doesn’t make any sense to you (ie “what the shit does ‘monophyletic’ mean and why is it important)? Figure out what about it is confusing and ask the damn google. 但我得告诉你——别被吓倒。有了互联网，你相当于拥有了24小时开放的图书馆。利用好它。多提问。看到不懂的词？查它。读到让你摸不着头脑的概念（比如“‘单系群’到底是什么鬼，为什么它很重要？”）？搞清楚哪里让你困惑，然后去问问该死的谷歌。

That said, there are some key concepts you should understand that will make things a lot easier. They are: Latin terminology - why do we use Latin? Well, because some dead guy named Linnaeus realized we need a universal system that scientists from multiple different cultures could use (at the time, he was probably mostly thinking of “white European cultures”, and while we can acknowledge how backwards and fucking goofy this is now, we can still admit that Linnaeus’ ideology was simply flawed like his time and NOT throw out the baby with the proverbial bath water. 话虽如此，有一些关键概念是你必须理解的，它们会让事情变得简单得多。首先是：拉丁语术语——我们为什么要用拉丁语？嗯，因为一个叫林奈的死人意识到，我们需要一套通用的系统，让来自不同文化的科学家都能使用（当时他可能主要考虑的是“白人欧洲文化”，虽然我们现在承认这有多么落后和愚蠢，但我们仍然可以承认林奈的思想只是像他那个时代一样有缺陷，而不是要把孩子和洗澡水一起倒掉）。

The fucker created a beautiful system, and it works. And that’s why we still use it. I say this because a few unthinking “performative leftist” nitwits as of late have decided to attack the science of taxonomy itself). Common names simply don’t work on a large scale. One common name (ie “cedar”) can refer to 8 different totally unrelated plants, where as Cedrus refers specifically to the genus which contains the species C. libani, C. deodara, and C. atlantica. 这个混蛋创造了一套优美的系统，而且它确实有效。这就是为什么我们至今仍在使用它。我之所以这么说，是因为最近有一些不经大脑的“表演型左派”蠢货决定攻击分类学本身。通用名称在大规模应用中根本行不通。一个通用名称（例如“雪松”）可以指代8种完全不相关的植物，而 Cedrus 则专门指代包含黎巴嫩雪松（C. libani）、喜马拉雅雪松（C. deodara）和大西洋雪松（C. atlantica）的属。

When botanic names (or any organism’s name) is written in scientific nomenclature, the genus name is capitalized and the species name is lower case, and the name itself is usually written in italics. If you write a species name “Cedrus Atlantica” it is a dead give-away that you don’t know what the fuck you are doing. I was politely corrected on this point more than a decade ago, and I never hesitate to politely correct others. It’s like being courteous enough to tell somebody that they have a booger on their face. 当植物名称（或任何生物名称）以科学命名法书写时，属名首字母大写，种加词小写，且名称本身通常用斜体书写。如果你把种名写成“Cedrus Atlantica”，那一眼就能看出你根本不知道自己在干什么。十多年前我曾就这一点被礼貌地纠正过，从此我从不犹豫去礼貌地纠正别人。这就像好心提醒别人脸上沾了鼻屎一样。

Taxonomy : IS THERE A METHOD TO THE MADNESS? WHAT GIVES? - In short, yes, there is, absolutely, and it is so FUCKING cool. Why is it cool? Because we now group things according to how evolutionarily related are, and how they evolved. Once you learn the key concepts and traits that unite a family or a genus or a tribe, you can now identify members of that evolutionary grouping that you have never seen before. 分类学：这种疯狂背后有章可循吗？到底怎么回事？——简而言之，有的，绝对有，而且它酷毙了。为什么酷？因为我们现在是根据生物在进化上的亲缘关系以及它们的进化方式来对事物进行分组。一旦你掌握了将一个科、一个属或一个族联系在一起的关键概念和特征，你就能识别出你从未见过的、属于该进化群体的成员。

This is how I can see a plant that I have never encountered before and automatically know what other plants its related to, what family or genus it is in, and thus know what taxonomic group to search for it under (on inaturalist using the “explore” feature or with a key (flora), etc). 这就是为什么我能看到一种从未见过的植物，并自动知道它与其他什么植物有亲缘关系，它属于哪个科或属，从而知道该在哪个分类群下搜索它（在 iNaturalist 上使用“探索”功能，或者使用检索表（植物志）等）。

Plant Systematics by Michael Simpson

《植物系统学》，作者：Michael Simpson

This is the seminal textbook to use if you are deciding to take the deeper dive into botany. Plant Systematics is the study of plant evolution, and furthermore is the study of plant identification as it relates to plant evolution via an understanding of SYNAPOMORPHIES. This textbook by Dr. Michael Simpson lays out why botanists were able to tell how closely related certain plant families and orders were BEFORE the advent of DNA analysis, as well as why some of those prior assumptions were found to be wrong. 如果你决定深入研究植物学，这是必读的开创性教科书。《植物系统学》研究的是植物进化，更进一步说，它是通过理解“共衍征”（SYNAPOMORPHIES）来研究与植物进化相关的植物识别。Michael Simpson 博士的这本教科书阐述了为什么植物学家在 DNA 分析出现之前就能判断某些植物科和目之间的亲缘关系，以及为什么其中一些先前的假设后来被证明是错误的。

This is a family-by-family, and order-by-order way to become familiar with plant morphology and evolution. This is also an excellent way to one day be able to see new plants that you have never seen before and automatically know what families or genera they might be related to simply by observing them. At present, the third edition is the most current and it is a book that you will use as a reference for the next ten years (at least) of your life. 这是一本按科、按目来熟悉植物形态学和进化的书。这也是一种极好的方法，让你有朝一日能够通过观察，自动识别出从未见过的植物可能与哪些科或属有亲缘关系。目前，第三版是最新的版本，这本书将成为你未来至少十年生活中的参考书。

Raven’s Biology of Plants

《雷文植物生物学》（Raven’s Biology of Plants）

This textbook covers many of the basics of plant biology as well as getting into the nuances of plant evolution, with excellent examples of some of the more charismatic and curious plant species out there. It also does a great job of explaining what botanists know so far about how plants evolve and how selection pressures work to cause all the “variations on a theme” and “endless forms most beautiful” that got Darwin all horny. 这本教科书涵盖了植物生物学的许多基础知识，并深入探讨了植物进化的细微差别，书中提供了许多迷人且奇特的植物物种作为优秀案例。它还出色地解释了植物学家目前对植物如何进化，以及选择压力如何导致达尔文为之着迷的那些“主题变奏”和“无尽之美”的理解。

What is an ecotype you say? What is the Hardy-Weinberg theorem? What are allele frequencies? What is convergent evolution? All these concepts are explained, in depth, in this excellent text book. 你说什么是生态型？什么是哈迪-温伯格定律？什么是等位基因频率？什么是趋同进化？所有这些概念在这本优秀的教科书中都有深入的解释。

Additional Texts

其他参考书

It’s always great to be able to support authors by buying their books, but sometimes the cost of self-education can prohibitive. It is my firm belief that any of the authors listed below (unless they’re dicks) would not want anyone to be prohibited from reading their work. This is why sources like www.libgen.is and www.sci-hub.se and other book sharing websites exist. In this case I suggest purchasing a cheap android tablet and becoming acquainted with the idea of reading textbooks in pdf form. A half pound electronic device can store upwards of half a million pages or more worth of textbooks. 通过购买书籍来支持作者总是件好事，但有时自学的成本可能会让人望而却步。我坚信，下面列出的任何作者（除非他们是混蛋）都不会希望任何人因为买不起书而无法阅读他们的作品。这就是为什么像 www.libgen.is 和 www.sci-hub.se 以及其他书籍共享网站存在的原因。在这种情况下，我建议买一个便宜的安卓平板电脑，并习惯阅读 PDF 格式的教科书。一个半磅重的电子设备可以存储五十万页甚至更多的教科书内容。

• Phylogeny and Evolution of the Angiosperms by Pam and Doug Soltis

• The Tangled Tree by David Quammen - A Good pop-sci explanation of molecular phylogenetics and understanding evolution

• Plant Evolution : An Introduction to the History of Life by Karl Niklas

• Botany Illustrated by Janice Glimm-Lacy

• Annals of the Former World (geology) by John McPhee

• Botany for Gardeners by Brian Capon

• The Ecology of Plants by Jessica Gurevitch

• A Botanist’s Vocabulary by Susan Pell

• The Rose’s Kiss by Peter Bernhardt

• Flowering Plant Families by Wendy Zomlefer

• How the Earth Turned Green by Joseph Armstrong

• The Origin, Expansion, and Demise of Plant Species by Donald Levin

• The Ecology of Seeds by Michael Fenner

• The Fungi by Sarah Watkinson

• Biogeography : An Ecological

• 《被子植物的系统发育与进化》，作者：Pam 和 Doug Soltis

• 《纠缠的树》（The Tangled Tree），作者：David Quammen —— 对分子系统发育学和理解进化论的优秀科普解释

• 《植物进化：生命史导论》，作者：Karl Niklas

• 《植物学图解》，作者：Janice Glimm-Lacy

• 《大地之书》（Annals of the Former World，地质学），作者：John McPhee

• 《园丁植物学》，作者：Brian Capon

• 《植物生态学》，作者：Jessica Gurevitch

• 《植物学家词汇表》，作者：Susan Pell

• 《玫瑰之吻》，作者：Peter Bernhardt

• 《开花植物科》，作者：Wendy Zomlefer

• 《地球如何变绿》，作者：Joseph Armstrong

• 《植物物种的起源、扩张与消亡》，作者：Donald Levin

• 《种子生态学》，作者：Michael Fenner

• 《真菌学》，作者：Sarah Watkinson

• 《生物地理学：生态学视角》