Features, such as form, physiology, structure, and behaviour, that are assessed in isolation from the rest of the plant by taxonomists, in order to make comparisons and interpretations. It is important to distinguish between characters and character states. For example, leaf width may be a character, while leaves 4 mm wide are an expression of that character, i.e. its character state. Characters are often referred to as 'good' or 'bad' but this is strictly relative. Thus a good diagnostic character, such as compound leaves in a group of plants that mainly have entire leaves, would be bad for separating taxa in a group in which leaf divisions were either variable or often compound. See also weighting. |
