Nomenclature

  • Plant classification

    • Kingdom

    • Phylum

    • Class

    • Order

    • Family

    • Genus

    • Species

  • A scientific name is comprised of the genus and specific epithet. It is always underlined or italicized.

  • Make sure to underline the scientific name!

  • The genus is always capitalized, the specific epithet is always lowercase. EX: Acer rubrum.

  • Polynomial names: “Ranunculus calycibus retroflexis…” translates to English “the buttercup with bent-back sepals…”

  • Carl Linnaeus (Swedish) published Species Plantarum in 1753 with binomial nomenclature, turned the buttercup into Ranunculus bulbosus.

    • first to consistently use binomial nomenclature

  • Naming process

    • Rule of priority: the candidate for the scientific name is from Linnaeus or the first name published after that

    • the new name must be published

    • the type specimen must be saved which acts as the standard for the species

    • kept in an herbarium

  • Scientific naming conventions

    • Scientific, or species name = Genus + specific epithet

    • italicized

    • Genus (plural: genera) is always capitalized, specific epithet is always lowercase. Specific epithet ending usually agrees with the “gender” of the genus

    • The authority is the person who described the species. It is listed in parentheses after the binomial name and not underlined or hyphenated

  • William Bartram first described Magnolia auriculata in his journal in 1775, while he traveled in northeast Georgia

    • but Magnolia fraseri was described in 1788 by another which became the name

  • Scientific naming conventions

    • family names are always capitalized, always end in -aceae, not underlined or italicized

    • common names are always lowercase (northern red oak

    • unless there is a proper noun (ex: Virginia creeper, Shumard oak)

    • Subspecies (ssp.) or variety (var.) - some patterns of within species variation are recognized as subspecies, variety, or form

    • no defined distinction between subspecies and variety, but “sufficiently distinct to warrant formal recognition, but not enough to be called a species, mainly due to lack of consistency”

    • some treatments have subspecies as geographical differences and variety as local differences

      • e.g. Coast douglas-fir and Rocky Mountain douglas-fir

      • e.g. Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii

    • Hybrids are designated with an x (no underline). 2 formats exist:

      • Quercus alba x Q

      • Quercus x beadlei

    • Cultivars are cultivated varieties. They are capitalized but not italicized or underlined

  • Who makes the rules? → ICN, International Code of Nomenclature, which replaces the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN). Fossil plants are also covered by the code of nomenclature.

  • Inherent bias within the nomenclature system

    • Plants were known, named, and used by Indigenous people long before nomenclature was adopted

    • The “authority” is historically Euro-centric and male

    • Colonial botanists (L-R): Michaux, Bartram, Fraser

    • Modern taxonomists: Small, Radford, Weakley

  • “Native” versus “non-native” species

    • of interest to dendrologists is whether a species is native or non-native

      • non-native species can be invasive and harm ecosystems

      • all plants present before European settlement are considered “native".” Anything introduced after that is called “non-native.”

      • Natural Heritage Program Botanist (and FER Masters in Forestry alum) Justin Robinson talks about Chickasaw plum and the idea of native versus non-native species

  • Why not use common names?

    • Only a small percentage of vascular plants have common names

    • The same name is often used for different plants

    • Common names are in the local language, which prevents communication of plant identities between users of different languages

    • There is no formal process for common names, so it isn’t possible to determine when a common name was first used

    • The same plant may have different common names in different regions

    • Many common names have negative bias or racist origins (false nettle, digger pine, and worse)

  • Conventions of common names

    • When do you combine or hyphenate common names?

      • when the words are descriptive, rather than the actual species of trees described

      • white oak, poison-ivy, tulip-poplar, horse-chestnut

  • Reasons why names change

    • There has been a name change made necessary by the rules of the Code. A name was found published earlier than the current authority

    • Some groups of plants are more difficult to classify than others and different authors may classify them differently

    • Modern molecular data may indicate that two groups formerly considered related to each other may not be related at all, so it moves to a new family