Historical Survey

Vegetation has undergone drastic changes throughout the history of man. Depending on the era, the culture and the purposes, the approach to vegetation has been wide and varied. From the dawn of mankind, medicine men and shamans, and later philosophers and wise men, have sought to increase their knowledge of plants, their relationship with their environment, and their properties, but, above all, they have sought to learn about their potential uses. The relationship between diverse cultures and the vegetation around them has been so close that multiple plant species owe their origin to this interaction. In the same way, any number of cultures have, almost without exception, adopted as part of their ideological, mystic, religious, dietary, medicinal and artistic customs symbols based on plant species. In principle, all learning revolved around a practical purpose, a vital necessity, but, as mankind advanced and the knowledge accumulated, the necessity of systemizing all of this information became plain, leading, therefore, to denominating plants and groups thereof according to a generally useful terminology, thus initiating the development of classification systems. Currently, the motivation to study vegetation is growing, but potential uses for plants, apart from agricultural purposes, continue to be the driving force. For example, sophisticated uses for plants are now under consideration, uses such as carbon capture, disaster mitigation or climate-condition regulation, among others.