Learning botanical plant names is a cross between learning code and a new language.
I feel Linnaeus, the botanist and Swede responsible for kick starting the classification system lacked a Nick Hornby/High Fidelity vinyl collection to sort and so being two centuries too early made do with plants .
From his system of 31 rules he started with giving each plant two names: Genus and Species which are always written in that order and known as the binomial method of naming plants.
The Genus is written with a capital letter. When Genus is referred to in a written article more than once it is subsequently shortened to be written only as the first letter of the Genus.
The Genus is a group of plants with similar characteristic of a substantive, general nature.
The Species name always starts with a small letter. It is a subgroup of plants from the Genus which all share especially similar characteristics. These characteristics are more descriptive. The species name might describe:
- Where the plant originated from (japonica/Japan)
- Its natural habitat (sylvaticus/of the woods)
- Its colour (alba/white)
So English Lavender for example is:
Lavandula angustifolia
Genus: Lavandula (named after the use made for it of lying it among freshly washed clothes and so from lavo: to wash)
Species: angustifolia (with narrow leaves)
And if I were to refer to it again I would now need to write it as L.angustifolia.
Next week I’ll delve deeper into getting carried away with classification to look at Families, Varieties and Cultivars.
