plantotyp

Plantotyp is a term used in botany and plant sciences to denote a hypothetical reference plant that embodies the characteristic traits of a species or a defined subgroup, serving as a standard or archetype for comparison and study. It is not a biological specimen itself, but a conceptual composite that can include morphology, physiology, genetic markers, and environmental response patterns typical of the species under defined conditions. The concept is distinct from genotype, which refers to the genetic makeup, and phenotype, which denotes observable traits of an individual plant. It is also different from a holotype, which is a physical specimen used to define a species.

In practice, plantotypes can be used in systematic biology, taxonomy, breeding, and crop modeling as a reference or target. They may be constructed from pooled data on multiple individuals, grown under standardized environments, or represented by a digital model that integrates morphological measurements, gene expression profiles, and physiological parameters. Plantotypes support comparisons across studies, help in defining species concepts, and assist in simulating growth under climate scenarios.

Limitations include the inherently variable nature of plants, genotype-by-environment interactions, and the difficulty of capturing the full range of natural variation in a single plantotype. The term is not universally standardized and may appear mainly in theoretical or methodological discussions rather than as a formal taxonomic category. See also: phenotype, genotype, holotype, reference cultivar, plant model.