Botanical Taxonomy
159 families across 1043 plants. Family membership predicts growth habits, pest pressure, companion relationships, and soil needs better than almost any other single data point.
Nitrogen fixers. The legume family includes beans, peas, clovers, and most N-fixing trees. Nodulating roots feed the whole guild.
Daisy family. Dynamic accumulators and pollinator magnets. Includes sunflowers, echinacea, calendula, and most tap-rooted mineral miners.
Mint family. Aromatic oils confuse pest navigation. Drought-tolerant, bee-loved, and useful in almost every guild as a pest deterrent.
Rose family. Almost every temperate fruit: apples, pears, plums, cherries, raspberries, strawberries. Watch for shared pests across family members.
Grass family. Includes all grains, sugarcane, bamboo, and lemongrass. Mostly wind-pollinated, deep-rooted, excellent soil builders.
Myrtle family. Tropical and subtropical fruits — feijoa, guava, jaboticaba, lilly pilly. Aromatic leaves, often edible flowers.
Citrus family. All citrus, rue, curry leaf. Volatile oils, vitamin C, essential guild members in subtropical food forests.
Heath family. Acid-loving berries — blueberries, cranberries, huckleberries. Need low pH, mycorrhizal partnerships, and patient establishment.
Carrot family. Umbelliferous flowers are parasitoid wasp magnets. Includes dill, fennel, cilantro, parsley — essential for pest management guilds.
Palm family. Tropical and subtropical canopy layer. Long-lived, wind-resistant, many yield edible fruit, hearts, and sap.
Gourd family. Vining heavy feeders. Squash bugs, cucumber beetles, and vine borers target the whole family. Rotate and intercrop.
Mustard family. Glucosinolates deter pests but attract specialists. Rotate religiously — club root and cabbage worms follow the family.
Nightshade family. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, potatoes. Heavy feeders, alkaloid producers. Rotate with non-solanums to break pest cycles.
Mallow family. Includes hibiscus, okra, cacao, cotton, moringa relatives. Deep taproots, mucilaginous properties, many medicinal uses.
Arum family. Taro, elephant ear, jack-in-the-pulpit. Calcium oxalate in most species — process before eating. Excellent shade-layer plants.