ASPECTS OF A CONTINUUM AND DYNAMIC MORPHO LOGY

The authors discuss presuppositions of classical plant morphology and point out the difficulties of classical (classificatory) typology (bas ed on typical forms that are mutually exclusive, categories such as sh oot, root, leaf, or trichome), which have been known for a long time. It is shown how these difficulties can be overcome by a more open morp hology concept that is continuous and dynamic. Furthermore, it is poin ted out that such an approach works through an appropriate methodology based on principal components analysis and a decomposition of the pla nt into nested morphological articulations.