Morpho-taxonomy and molecular intrusion!

The present article is partly a follow-up to an editorial in Current Science (2023, 125(11), 1155– 1156) defending taxonomy and concerns about waning landscapes and floras. Some remarks were made on the expositions presented in this editorial. The article reiterates the importance of morphotaxonomy in biodiversity documentation and its sustainable utilization. It explains how molecular taxonomy which does not handle explorations, enumerations, and floras independently grew at the price of morpho-taxonomy. It emphasizes that molecular approaches have quite a few limitations with more convolutedness in experimentation and circumambulation in data processing. Name changes happening, principally below the generic level through molecular approaches and in phylogenetic perspective may destroy the long-existing and established literature/names. Our molecular approaches should be situation-specific as needs arise and, more precisely, when taxonomic issues are identified as complexes based on morpho-taxonomy.