Systematic studies in crataegus (rosaceae)

我的研究涉及北美最重要的木本植物之一-山楂（山楂）。山楂自然变得重要，因为它们在自然生态系统中经常是如此丰富，甚至有时是优势物种。在北美有超过100种，比任何木本植物都多。山楂在自然界中的一些作用是：创造动物栖息地（覆盖，筑巢场所，许多物种的繁殖地）;在开花时提供大量花粉和花蜜;为鸟类，小型哺乳动物，鹿和熊提供水果。山楂也有直接的人类医学用途，例如，用于高血压、树篱、果树学和观赏园艺。在物种之间发现的轻微到重大差异表现在它们不同的栖息地和不同的生态中，但需要明确，正如我的研究所做的那样，我的研究描述了我和同事O 'Kennon发现的山楂新物种，并将这些和已知的物种放在分类方案中，这对有序地理解这一主题至关重要。由于缺乏对特定山楂物种的确切了解，涉及它们的生态学研究受到阻碍，稀有物种的保护也不可能。因此，必须将这项工作提交给生物学公众。

My research deals with one of the most important woody plants in North America - hawthorn(Crataegus). Hawthorns automatically become important because they are such frequently abundant, even sometimes dominant species, in natural ecosystems. There are well over a 100 species of them in North America, more than for any woody plant. Some of the roles of hawthorn in nature are: creating animal habitat (cover, nesting sites, breeding grounds for many species); enormous provision of pollen and nectar at flowering time; like supply of fruit for birds, small mammals, also deer and bear. Hawthorns also have direct human use in  medicine e.g., for hypertension,  hedging, pomology and ornamental horticulture. Slight to major differences found between species shows up in their differing habitats and varied ecology but needs to be made explicit, as is done by my studies, which describe new species of hawthorn discovered by myself and co-worker O'Kennon and also place these and already known species in a scheme of classification which is critical to an ordered understanding of the subject. Lacking any exact understanding of the particular hawthorn species involved, ecological studies involving them become stymied and conservation of rare species impossible. It is, therefore, essential that this work be brought before the biological public.