Centre for Floristic Research (CFR) earlier known as Taxonomy Lab, is a unit of Department of Plant  Biology and Plant Biotechnology. Madras Christian College has been in the forefront in the field of taxonomy since 1930s. Prof. E. Barnes, though a chemistry teacher, was a well known taxonomist of his times. He has contributed a lot towards the understanding of flora tropical dry evergreen forest and the Western Ghats especially Arisaema and Impatiens spp. He was primarily responsible for the present vegetation of the campus which is a regenerated Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest.

Prof. D. Giles Lal, who was one of the earliest teachers of taxonomy, was a popular teacher of taxonomy for over three decade since 1947 in the city of Chennai. He was known for his regimental field trips and for his first compilation of flora of Madras Christian College campus in 1972. Dr. C. Livingstone along with his teacher Prof. D. Giles Lal has brought an updated edition of Flora of Madras Christian College in 1978. This flora has served as a popular reference for plant names and local names among the taxonomy teachers of various colleges. Dr. C. Livingstone revised P. V. Mayuranathan’s Flowering Plants of Madras City and its immediate neighbourhood and his study was published by the Madras Museum in 1994. There were two other teachers of taxonomy namely, Dr. Crispin Devadas and Prof. Durairaj Rajiah who had a passion for taxonomy and inspired several undergraduate batches of students. Dr. Crispin’s illustrations of LS and floral diagrams of common plants have remained a standard reference for generations of teachers.

Department of Botany as it was known earlier and was rechristened as department of Plant Biology and Plant Biotechnology after 2005 has remained a place of higher learning in taxonomy. Among colleges of Tamil Nadu, CFR of this department has been recognized as one of the well known taxonomic training and research centres. Students from this centre have been appreciated for their skills in conventional taxonomy and for their knowledge in the upcoming fields. A large number of Government and Non–Governmental organizations have employed students from this centre to their satisfaction.

CFR basically train students in the following areas. 1. Floristics 2. Ethnobotany 3. Medicinal Plants 4. Anatomy and Pharmacognosy. CFR has a good expertise and information on the flora of Tropical Dry Evergreen Forests, Eastern Ghats, Sacred Groves, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and on endemic plants of Tamil Nadu state.  CFR also has explored medicinal plant markets of Tamil Nadu and has collaborated with Foundation for Revitalisation of Local Health Traditions (FRLHT), Bengaluru and our inputs have been incorporated in their publications on Medicinal Plant Trade. CFR is perhaps the only taxonomic centre in the entire Northern Tamil Nadu and is being consulted by various user groups such as students, researchers, foresters, volunteer organizations and public for identifying plants and for other relevant information on plants. CFR also offers consultancy on tree planting especially on the choice of appropriate native tree species. CFR has a good library resource in the field of taxonomy, biodiversity, ethnobotany and medicinal plants that is referred by students as well as researchers from this department and other institutions.