Phytogeography

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History

Phytogeography has a long history. One of the subjects earliest proponents was Prussian naturalist Alexander von Humboldt, who is often noted to as the "father of phytogeography". Von Humboldt advocated a quantitative approach to phytogeography that has characterized innovative plant geography.

Gross patterns of the distribution of plants became apparent early on in the explore of plant geography. For example, Alfred Russel Wallace, co-discoverer of the principle of natural selection, discussed the Latitudinal gradients in mark diversity, a pattern observed in other organisms as well. Much research effort in plant geography has since then been devoted to apprehension this pattern & describing it in more detail.

In 1890, the United States Congress passed an act that appropriated funds to send expeditions to discover the geographic distributions of plants and animals in the United States. The first of these was The Death Valley Expedition, including Frederick Vernon Coville, Frederick Funston, Clinton Hart Merriam, and others.

Research in plant geography has also been directed to apprehension the patterns of adaptation of species to the environment. This is done chiefly by describing geographical patterns of trait/environment relationships. These patterns termed ecogeographical rules when applied to plants exist another area of phytogeography.