The Swedish botanist Carl von Linné (1707-1778) developed the foundations of modern taxonomy and introduced the concept of species into biological systematics. In his two-volume work "Species Plantarum", published in 1753, he described all the plants known to him on 1,200 pages with around 7,300 species. Among other things, the plant genus Vitis(grapevine) was described here for the first time. Together with the work "Systema Naturæ" published in 1758 with the six levels kingdom, class, order, genus, species and variety, this established the scientific nomenclature still used today in botany and zoology.

However, Linne's system did not yet include all the categories and levels used today. These are not always used for all plants or animals. The respective use depends on how complex the respective units are. The three main categories almost always mentioned are family (familia) - genus - species. Each category can be broken down into "sub-levels" (sub) and a "super-level" (super) can be created. See an example of a three-level division in the table below under division (divisio) into superdivision, division and subdivision.

Systematics

There are various systems, some with different levels. Professor Dr Bernhard Husfeld (1900-1970), the director of the Geilweilerhof Institute (Siebeldingen-Pfalz), created a widely recognised classification system. Another was developed in 1967 by the ampelographer Pierre Galet (1921-2019). The systematics presented below was informed by Prof. Dr Manfred A. Fischer (Department of Botanical Systematics and Evolutionary Research, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Austria).

The hermaphrodite flower form therefore only corresponds to the last milliseconds of vine evolution, so to speak. Genetics was thus mainly characterised by the period of 79.99 million years. In the many spontaneous crosses...