Two approaches to representing multiple overlapping classifications: a comparison [plant taxonomy]

One of the tasks of plant taxonomy is the creation of classifications of organisms that allows the understanding of the evolutionary relationships between them. In this paper, we describe two different data models that have been designed to support two aspects of taxonomic work: the storage of the information and the visualisation of that information. We show that these two models are different because of their constraints and aims, and we compare their abilities using a number of typical tasks that users perform. We also show that, although different and able to perform different tasks, each of these models is well adapted to its purpose, and tight integration is difficult.