Botanical Nomenclature

Abstract

Before the work of Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778), the botanist who established the binomial system of plant nomenclature, a plant sometimes had a name that consisted of many descriptive words. Linnaeus helped to standardize botanical nomenclature by establishing a genus and species name for each plant, followed by its designator. A clinical report involving a plant must always include the plant’s botanical (binomial) name, which consists of both the genus and the species, for example, Duranta repens. By convention, both are italicized or underlined. Duranta is the name of the genus and the first letter is always capitalized. A genus (the plural of which is genera) may be composed of a single species or several hundred. The second part of the binomial, in this case repens, is the particular species within the genus, and it is always in lowercase letters. It is important to include the name of the person (often abbreviated) who named the particular species, as part of the scientific name, to minimize confusion between similar or related plant species. For example, in the case above, the complete name, which would allow the most precise identification, is Duranta repens L.; L. is the accepted abbreviation for Carolus Linnaeus.