It’s All in the Plant Family

In honor of National Siblings Day this past Saturday, we thought it would be fun to explore plant families and talk about some plants that you may not have realized are related!

[Excuse us while our plant-nerd side comes out for a bit] 

Let’s start at the beginning, taxonomy is used to identify and classify organisms, including plants. Plants are grouped and named by their botanical similarities and shared characteristics (such as flower or foliage form). Plants are grouped in order of family, sub-family, genus, species, cultivar or variety. The further up the taxonomy ladder you go, the farther plants are from being related. Think of it like first, second, and third cousins. Taxonomy is dynamic and always changing as new technology and plants are discovered.

Up to this point, taxonomists have used flowering (reproductive) structures in plants to classify them into families, subfamilies, and genera. However, with recent technology, they are also beginning to look at genetic code.

Sansevieria is actually Dracaena??

A recent development in the plant world (that may have caused some confusion and commotion) was the re-classification of the Sansevieria genus into the Dracaena genus. DNA sequencing of plants started in the 1990s and has only become more advanced to this day. Analyzing a plant’s genes lets us go further than classifying a plant by its flowering structure or epidermal structure (the outside of the leaves) and can help us group plants accordingly at a molecular level. Summer Rayne Oakes explains the Sansevieria/Dracaena debacle very thoroughly in this video. While many of us are having a hard time letting go of the Sansevieria name, it is fascinating to know that what was once thought to be maybe a “distant cousin” of the Dracaena is really one of the same family!

Introducing the Marantaceae family

While you might not immediately recognize the family name Marantaceae, you probably recognize some of its foliage family members! Popular houseplant genera within this family include Maranta (prayer plant), Calathea, and Stromanthe. (P.S. check out the cute Calathea sibs in our blog image!) What is unique amongst these related plants is that they perform a daily ritual with their leaves, opening up during the daylight hours and closing or folding in when it becomes dark. Plant families not only share physical traits but also have shared physiological traits (or traits relating to the way the plant functions). This can include other traits like plant toxicity!

Plants are pretty cool and we’re learning more about them every day as technology advances and new plants are discovered. So when adding new plants to your “plant family”, do a little research and you may find out you have some “siblings” amongst your collection already!