I put together every single Plant Family onto a Phylogenic Tree (Excluding Ferns, Mosses or Algae cuz those aren’t seed plants). Anyone want to peer review it or find mistakes let me know.
This is just the PNG file & isn’t the best quality, I have the SVG file but can’t upload here, oh well.
That’s awesome!
Hopefully it’s easy to edit for everytime they move or rename a species 
Thank you!
This is just Family & Subfamily level, going to species level would be insane 
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Also the phylogeny has been updated recently in a new study & some families have been moved. This is an on going project so I will eventually update it.
It would be so cool to have something like that all the way to the species level.
Maybe in an interactive web format that was searchable so you could go directly to the plant you were looking for.
Nice job! This looks great. IMHO, I don’t think a species-level tree, aside from being an insane amount of work, would even be useful. Hybrids and frequent reclassifications will always muddy the concept of “species.” And then we have species with many different-looking and differently named forms, like the brassicas. Yikes.
@JinTX it would be cool to just enter the name of a species I like and see it light up on a tree like this. Someone who has access to a big database could just write a little program that identifies the family of whatever species you type in and then that could be used to highlight the branch on @VeggieSavage 's chart. Above my pay grade, for sure. 
Superb and nice! I’d be happy to look it over but need to get each branch to enlarge, or get a file link to read. I only have three books from the 1970’s as a reference. Its a start. As a suggestion, maybe just work on species tree for the various seeds we are working with. I haven’t given up on colorful flesh cucumbers…but I dont want to loose good flavor. Most of the seed in the database is just listed as seed, not much for any other information. I wish seeds would be labeled with the endophytes they live with. That correlation could be the explanation for temperature tolerance, nutritional value and flavor. Mycorrhizae, mycelium,
and rhysobium are the basics with the handfuls of fungi and bacteria that are part of a plants life need to be included in the equation of diversity. Im thinking the “wild” seeds or plants growing in different continental soils, before they are destroyed by mechanical or chemical disruption, would be part of the germplasm equation. A living “soil” bank may be a way forward, with hydrated soil samples kept beside the seeds, or at least catalogs developed side by side. So much synergy comes together under the soil horizon for plants to grow and be healthy.
Species level would be absolutely insantity, especially since species lines get really muddy thur hybridization (Which I gladly want to facilitate more of despite the taxonomic head aces it creates 
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Thank you! Absolutely agree + I don’t need all species in existence to out on a phylogenic tree, that’s too much work! Plus I’d rather allocate the time I have for edible plants I care about & their wild relatives. Crops like Melons, Tomatoes, Squash, Lambsquaters, Persimmons, & Many more cultivated & Wild Edibles are worth getting species level trees for.
100% agree & we as Plant Breeders/Landrace Gardeners are only muddying the waters further & having the most fun doing it!
Here’s a meme about my point.
Species lines absolutely get blurred often these are known (or should be) as Species Complex which is either 1 highly diverse species with many subspecies inside it or lots of super closely related species that constantly cross into each other.
Also not all species boxes weigh or capture the same level/amount of diversity.
For example : There’s 5 different “Species” of Blackberries with nearly indistinguishable differences but all the diversity inside Cucurbita pepo (Including 2 subspecies) are all just 1 species!? Rubus pensilvanicus & Cucurbita pepo clearly weight very differently taxonomically.
Another Example : Amaranthus hybridus, A. caudatus & A. hypochondriacus are all part of the Hybridus species complex & should be lumped under 1 species just like Brassica oleracea is all just 1 species. Imagine if every cultivar was split into a different species? People would’ve thought Broccoli, Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Kale, Cauliflower, ect would’ve all been separate species.
The odd way we box species is very dis-balanced toward the genetic reality, why aren’t wild species allowed to have cultivars made & selected by nature? In many cases, The differences are no more wider than if they were cultivars selected by humans.
Brassicas are complex because they evolved thru Whole Genome Duplication or Chromosome Doubling. This makes the hybridization barriers very easy to overcome simply by doubling chromosomes! In fact it’s theoretically possible that every species & genus in the Brassiceae Tribe is cross compatible.
I’ve looked into the evolutionary history of Brassica & found out many species have created each other or were combined/introgressed into each other.
Ancient Brassica rapa & Brassica oleracea ancestors created Radish (Raphanus) when they crossed with the Brassica nigra & Sinapis arvensis types. This means there’s a good case for Raphanus to actually be a Brassica too 
or Brassica nigra has to become Mutarda nigra.
Brassica & Raphanus are cross compatible making them intergeneric hybrids but so is Sinapis Eruca Cakile and any other Brassiceae Tribe Genera.
That would be awesome, or if it could highlight at least what family/subfamily the species belongs in. Eventually I was hoping to put this phylogenic tree as a road map where every plant family could be linked into their own tree of which then species/genus could read.
Kind of like a PFAF x Wikipedia x Phylogenic Tree Edible Plants Database.
I like your ideas! Hopefully I can find the right people to collaborate with & make it happen.
I’m not a very good with programing, if I don’t find collabortators ChatGPT & AI will probably find a way to code it.
I have the SVG File for the tree where you can zoom into detail but sadly the GTS Forums discourse software can’t accept uploading SVG files here. This means I will have to find a way to convert the SVG file into PDF as a PNG version will be TOO LARGE without being compressed severely.
Oh that would be AWESOME! However I think the endophytes should actually come with the seeds rather than being sterilized & labeled with what endophyte they used to have
Label may do you little good if it also didn’t come with the actually endophyte if you get what I’m saying.
I absolutely agree, GoingToSeed orginzation is the most closest thing we have to being a viable living seed bank. I think a Living soil bank would be more complicated to implement legally.
Transportation…if a wild species isnt collected in some way by seeds, or cuttings…it would never meet up with…or have close contact with like genetics in order to hybridize. Pollinators only have a local range, they are not intercontinental unless a storm moves them great distances, or a bird migrating, or a human physically moving them. Isolation is brutal genetically. Mechanical contact is prevented by distance. The advent of agricultute made plants contact each other by means of familiarity by the consumer, may it be human or animal. If you like to eat corn, your looking for those types of plants. Or if there is a disaster, a fire or drought, whatever survives intermingles if its compatible. Dispersal mechanisms compared to collection methodology…and the speed of communication factors in with the species hybridization. Im not a mathematics expert but im sure there is an equation to explain better.
Im also curious to know when plants hybridize, will endophytes do the same to go with the new genetic plant material or would they stay with the original seeds before hybridization? Would wild seed, with wild endophytes cause a non compatibility to hybridize or enhance it? Is it strictly the mechanical reproduction compatibility of the pollen to the pistal?
Yea… that’s literally the only hybridization barrier among all Claytonia spp. , which is easy to overcome by growing them all in your garden. Claytonia don’t care about mismatching chromosome numbers, they just cross regardless.
Probably, again I haven’t tooken the course but very likely those endophytes facilitate some horizonal gene flow especially if they were grown in the same location/soils. Perhaps in a different soil/location different endophytes will interact with new seeds.
I saved chickweed seeds from parking lot Lawns sometimes next to car exhausts, I plan on growing them organically. It’s what I do will any wild edible growing in a spot I can’t forage for enviromental pollution reasons.
Probably or very likely would enhance it (Need to study more to confirm but my gut says it will enhance it).
However I do know it’s not strictly mechanical reporduction compatility of pollen to pistal, many other hybridization barriers also exist, pollen not germinating thru the tube to reach the ovule is just 1 of them. Mismatching chromosomes In create hybridization barriers (Mostly in plant families/genera that are strict about it, like in Diospyros or Cucumis melo x Cucumis sativus). There are also other reasons embyro just abort even after pollen successfully germinated.
Sometimes it’s just genetic, too wide of a jump.
So instead of just focusing on whats above the ground and collecting seeds, perhaps collecting a handful of soil to move with the seeds would facilitate crossing. Maybe genes can be caused to accept an uncompatable hybrid situation if a particular bacteria or fungi is present at the moment of fertilization…IDK maybe its a mutation all the same…i can not articulate well what im thinking…
Maybe… I do know Bacteria & Fungi cross all the time easily, sometimes with less hybridization barriers than in plants.
I also know Parasitic plants are really good at facilitating horizontal gene flow because they connect to both plants & move DNA across them. I’m thinking why aren’t the endophytes also doing something similar? Bugs sometimes move plant viruses around which is technically a form of horizontal gene flow right?
Maybe & probably! It wouldn’t surprise me but I feel it would also be hard to prove exactly that it was exclusively the bactera/fungi that helped achieve hybridization enviroment & not other factors.
Another crazy idea is to try taking some soil & putting it on the female part, basically getting both the pollen & pistil dirty with soil? Lots of these things haven’t been tried or documented yet or I just haven’t seen them yet. There are so many fun plant experiments that haven’t been tried yet so the possibilities are virtually endless.
Maybe lots of plant Mutations may have been facilitated this way.
I’m thinking Bacteria facilitate more horizontal gene flow in aquatic plants than they do on land plants, what do you think? I know fungi almost certainly do & I’m pretty sure the horizontal gene transfer is WAYYY much stronger done to younger hybrid seedlings than they are in Mature Trees.
Since young hybrid seedlings are the most plastid, they are also the most receptive to change. Mature Tree thru the Fungi/Mycorrhiza may horizontally transfer genes (And other things like nutrients/phenotype expression) to young hybrid seedlings.
I love this!!!
Different insects landing on the pistals would carry bits of soil? Not just bees land on flowers?
Probably but so does wind pollination.
I’ve updated it to more closely match the Phylogeny of these 2 new studies from 2024 & 2025. Phylogenies are always updated but this Poster is at a Stable point.
Let me know if you catch/find any mistakes. Feel free to peer review it too!
2024 Study : https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380069175_Phylogenomics_and_the_rise_of_the_angiosperms
2025 Study : https://www.researchgate.net/publication/389272351_Phylogenomics_of_angiosperms
Anyone know how to Print it? Are SVG Files printable?
Or recommend any Print Services? I’d love to have this as a poster I can hang on my wall.
I will check, a poster would be amazing. Im on the East coast this week…im at the giant book sale too and looking for reference books. Cornell university alumni and students donate thousands of books for a huge semi annual book sale. Im looking for phylogeny, soils including microbiology and endophytes, seeds, grafting, entomology for polinators…anything else?
Looking at this reference
Im taken to looking for relationships in soil and simply calibrating back down to garden growing relationships, and without the imputs. All of this growing science needs to look at synergies between plant clades and the soil relationships to the grouping of plants who live together. The phylogenic trees help get you to relationships by time and by climate compatibility. At least its a perspective to think about. Bring in the endophytes and they calibrate how plants react to stress, the sensors, and translators of environmental conditions. Soil pH, salinity keep the soil microbiology balanced or not…templates of soil conditions as they move thru time and see if parallel plant health coincides. As above… so it goes below. The soil types could have a phylogenic tree too…from every continent, the fungi and bacteria thru time as they colonized, where geographic clades of plants emerged.
A biological calibration of time as it relates to symbiosis from the originating mix. Just my thought, trying to articulate the inclusion of overlaps when thinking of plant disease and why it persists. Im thinking its because of soil management. Soil microbial life needs to remain diverse, and that life needs direct support and a perfect understanding.
Plant seeds, leave them alone to grow, study what is working with all the metrics. Plant communities of tasty vegetative species, always a group that “likes” to thrive together. Its really the biodynamic of growing, those relationships that exist within the soil. The ruminating animals grazing, the forbs they consume, the microbes they walk around with inside their gut and deposit on the soil, and walk away…The sweeping motion of the seasons. Look at the phylogenic tree again with timing, of ruminent grazing, and when it stops, side by side. Thats regenerative growing…but it still needs the super diversity of plant species…
Nice!
Yes partially, different species can have very different climate adaptations. 2 different melon cultivars adapt to 2 very different climates despite being technically boxed under the same species taxon. Or Brassica oleracea for example.
But still there is detailed phylogeny of just Brassica oleracea.
Oh yes… all life has phylogenic trees but those for bacteria get complex since they all so easily hybridize. If I Recall Correctly, Matt Powers was working on a Database for this thing, called the “R-Soil Database”. Basically anyone with a microscope can upload what they see & have it be Identified.
Agreed! I also know different diverse plants feed a diverse amount of soil microbial life.
This is exactly why Monoculture plantations can lack diversity in soil life, vs a highly diverse Polyculture system.
Some plants feed Endo or Ecto Mycorrhiza & others something else. Every unique plant feeds the soil microbes differently thus I believe diversity above the soils leads to diversity below the soil.
Interesting, like a 3 Sisters Plant Guild. You can expand that concept to work with many other plant combos.
Ah the fascinating food cycle, I suspect the eating wild foods means you get your local ecosystem microbes into your gut system. Thus your digestive microbes gets to participate with the soil life.
…sort of, Three Sisters grew together as a complete meal…I think. I ment to say, “companions”, like garlic and tomato’s planted together with herbs and more root vegetables… for insect repellant and for protection and longevity of the soil microbes. Growing species towards the balace with the soil. I would like handfuls of soils to add to the garden, with the seeds, from their origin. Synergistic and together for growing as they travel from one garden to another.
