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A Personal Love Affair with Taxonomy
Naming Things is Fun!
Why I Love Taxonomy
I love to put names on things.
“I believe in the power and mystery of naming things. Language has the capacity to transform our cells, rearrange our learning patterns of behavior, and redirect our thinking. I believe in naming what’s right in front of us because that is often what is most visible.” Eve Ensler
When I was an undergraduate at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse, (more years ago than I care to remember!) I took lots of courses that used dichotomous keys to find out the common and scientific names of plants, animals, fungi and lots of other organisms.
One of my favourite courses was one where we spent the whole course looking at and identifying algae and other water based microorganisms like diatoms.
How do dichotomous keys work?
A taxonomic dichotomous key gives you a set of questions/descriptions to answer about the creature you are trying to find the name of. Each answer then directs you to the next set of questions until you arrive…
