An herbiary of plant individuality - INRAE - Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology Année : 2018

An herbiary of plant individuality

Sophie Gerber

Résumé

Questioning the nature of individuality has a long a rich history, both in philosophy and in biology. Because they differ in several features from the pervasive vertebrate-human model, plants have been considered as complicating the question. Here, the various plant species on which authors—whether biologists or philosophers—rely to build the picture of plant individuality are examined and tracked for their peculiarities, thus constituting an “herbiary” of plant individuality.The herbiary of plant individuality has as its members species exhibiting a diverse collection of traits and illustrating different questions related to plant individuality.This essay assesses the peculiarity of the features of these plants and the reality of their differences from animals. Because some plant features are supposed to pose a threat to individual genetic homogeneity, higher heterogeneity has been assumed for plants compared to animals.Moreover, individual plants are sometimes identified with communities. How does this supposed heterogeneity appear in particular species? Cultivated plants exhibit distinctive diversity, and their overrepresentation in the study of plant diversity might bias the way plant individuality is understood. Just as there is a vertebrate bias, there may also be a cultivated plant bias. Recent results bring plants much closer to animals in terms of cellular functioning, so plants might not be so different from animals with respect to their diversity, and consequently their individuality.
Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
2018_Gerber_PTPB_1.pdf (168.67 Ko) Télécharger le fichier
HerbiaryPicturesTable6_2.pdf (1.7 Mo) Télécharger le fichier
Origine : Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte
Origine : Fichiers produits par l'(les) auteur(s)
Loading...

Dates et versions

hal-02625083 , version 1 (26-05-2020)

Licence

Paternité - Pas d'utilisation commerciale - Pas de modification

Identifiants

Citer

Sophie Gerber. An herbiary of plant individuality. Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology, 2018, 10, pp.1-24. ⟨10.3998/ptpbio.16039257.0010.005⟩. ⟨hal-02625083⟩

Collections

INRA INRAE BIOGECO
74 Consultations
78 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More