> > >What is a "clade"? > >Mark McDonough, antennaria@aol.com, http://www.plantbuzz.com/ Hi Mark, A clade is a group of species with a common ancestor. In cladistics, the interest is in how today's plants have developed from earlier plants and their relationships across time to other plants. You can compare this to taxonomy, where the interest is in plants today and how they relate in hierarchical terms with other related plants. Having said that, I am no expert in this area, I just happen to know a few bits and pieces. If you are interested further you could look at "clade" in the Wikipedia or through Google. However, expert or not, I find this kind of information just helps me to understand my plants better! Best regards, David Victor