Origin from 1900
Plant inheritance and lineage tested against documented breeding evidence rather than appearance or claimed continuity alone. Became a testable science in 1900, when Hugo de Vries's independent rediscovery of Mendel's laws of heredity, alongside Carl Correns and Erich Tschermak, gave plant inheritance its first mathematical law.
Facts
Method
Methodcontrolled breeding and hybridization experiment tracking how inherited traits pass between generations, testing a lineage claim against documented cross breeding results rather than appearance alone 2 Subject
Subjectthe inherited traits and breeding history of plant species, and whether a claimed ancient or sacred plant variety is genetically distinct from a related cultivated or wild plant 2 Identity
Field Category Parent Field Origins
Emerged As Named Discipline Learn More
De Vries Rediscovers Mendel and Plant Genetics Becomes a Science
Plant genetics studies the inherited traits and breeding history of plant species, establishing whether a claimed ancient or sacred plant variety is genetically distinct and how a cultivated plant actually relates to its wild ancestors. The Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries, working independently at the University of Amsterdam, published his rediscovery of Gregor Mendel's long overlooked laws of heredity in 1900, in the same year as the botanists Carl Correns and Erich Tschermak reached the same conclusion independently, giving the study of plant inheritance for the first time a testable, mathematical law rather than only observed resemblance between parent and offspring.
A plant claimed as an ancient sacred variety, a temple grove's particular strain, a ritual herb said to be unchanged since antiquity, is a testable genetic claim once Mendel's laws, rediscovered by de Vries, are applied to it, comparing the plant's actual inherited traits against its relatives rather than accepting a tradition's claim of unbroken continuity on faith. The atlas relies on plant genetics wherever a sacred or ritual plant's claimed lineage, distinctness or antiquity can be tested against documented breeding and inheritance evidence.
Connections
Branch Of
Source Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental DevelopmentOECD
Open Questions Needing This
Source Ethnopharmacology of Ska Maria Pastora (Salvia divinorum, Epling and Jativa-M.)Leander J. Valdes III, Jose Luis Diaz and Ara G. Paul
Sources
1. Frascati Manual 2015: Guidelines for Collecting and Reporting Data on Research and Experimental Development
2. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source Divinity Atlas Scholarly Discipline Register
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