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Plant Names
Taxonomy
Plant taxonomy and systematics are
the study of plant family relationships
that underlies how plants are named.
Plants that are closely related are
grouped together in families.
The herbarium specimen to the right is
a fern collected by Charles Darwin.
Herbaria contain dried specimens of
plants that represent the "type" for a
species.
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Historical Plant Classification
From antiquity, botanists have looked
for a natural order that might inspire
an easy-to-use system for classifying
and naming plants.
As early as 300 B.C., the Greek
Theophrastus observed that plants
could be divided into trees, shrubs
and herbs. His books included :
Historia de Plantis
and
De Causis Plantarum
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Early Formats for Plant Names
Latin phrases
There remained no standard format
for naming plants into the mid-1700s.
Until that time, plant names were
often complex Latin phrases that
described their physical appearance
or their resemblance to other
previously described plants.
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Early Formats for Plant Names
Latin phrases
For example, Veronica persica would have
been named -
"Veronica flosculis oblongis pediculis
insidentibus, chamaedryos folio, major."
This mouthful translates as –
"the greater speedwell with little oblong
flowers on short stalks and leaves like
Chamaedryos."
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Early Formats for Plant Names
Latin phrases
1
To the right is an old wood cut from an
herbal describing three different daffodils.
Their names are provided by L'Obel as Latin
phrases.
1. Narcissus montanus omnium minimus mountain daffodil that is altogether small.
3. Narcissus montanus juncifolius minimus
alter - mountain daffodil with rush-like
leaves, the second of which is smaller.
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3
2. Narcissus juncifolius flore rotundo roseo Rush-leaved daffodil with circular pink
flowers.
2
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Early Formats for Plant Names
Latin phrases
This strawberry from South America
was introduced into Europe and is
pictured here in an herbal.
The Chilean strawberry had a much
bigger fruit than its European
counterpart. The wood cut shows an
exaggerated fruit size as well as a
hefty name.
Fragaria Chiliensis fructu maximo, foliis
carnosis, hirsutis vulgo frutilla.
Chilean strawberry with extremely large
fruit, fleshy leaves and a hairy common
fruit stem.
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Early Attempts at Plant Classification
Mathias de L'Obel
Andrea Cesalpino
Caspar Bauhin
However, it wasn't until the 16th Century that European botanists
including L'Obel, Cesalpino and Bauhin attempted to classify plants
according to a more natural system using morphological features of
the plant such as leaf shape and fruit characteristics. These attempts
were a good start, but were not entirely satisfactory.
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Early Attempts at Plant Classification
L’Obel was born in Belgium, but worked
most of his life in England. He is thought
to be the first author to organize plants
according to their physical relationships
(such as leaf shape) rather than their
medicinal properties.
He recognized the differences between
monocots and dicots.
His books included Stirpium Adversaria
Nova (1570) followed by the richly
illustrated Plantarum, Seu, Stirpium
Historia in 1576.
Mathias L’Obel (1538-1616)
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Early Attempts at Plant Classification
Andrea Cesalpino was an Italian who
generally used the Greek system
described by Theophrastus of trees,
shrubs and herbs, but also attempted to
create a more natural plant
classification system by using fruits and
seeds as plant descriptors.
His major work was ”De Plantis” in
1583. It consisted of 16 books and
described 1,500 plants.
Andrea Cesalpino (1524 - 1603)
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Early Attempts at Plant Classification
Caspar (Gaspard) Bauhin was a Swiss
botanist who wrote a 12 book treatise on
plants titled “Pinax Theatri Botanici”
that described over 6,000 plants.
It is interesting because several of the
books or book sections grouped plants
into fairly natural orders like crucifers,
composites, or bulbs.
His major contribution was the extensive
use of two word names (Latin binomials)
for the plants in his books.
Caspar Bauhin (1560 - 1624)
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It is interesting to see that as the
classification systems became more natural
and more plants were being described (even
if they had no important medicinal
properties), there is also the evolution to
shorter more uniform plant names.
In 1700, Tournefort published "Institutiones
Rei Herbariae." This was a monumental book
listing approximately 10,000 plants. It
included all the plants known to European
botanists.
The book's contribution was to group plants
together into genera based mostly on flower
and fruit parts. He grouped plants into 698
genera and gave reasons for grouping them
together.
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Joseph Pitton Tournefort
(1659-1708)
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Linnaeus
Linnaeus
The Swedish-born Carl Linnaeus
expanded Tournefort's work and
changed the way botanists
approached grouping and naming
plants by publishing his landmark
book "Species Plantarum" in 1753.
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Linnaeus
Linnaeus made two major innovations to
taxonomy and nomenclature.
First, Linnaeus developed a system for
grouping plants into a genus based on
flower parts.
Second, he decided that all plants should
be described by two Latin names.
The first name became the genus
followed by a species name. This is the
system of binomial nomenclature still used
today.
Linnaeus
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Linnaeus
Linnaeus established his "System
Naturae" based on 24 categories
recognized by the number and shape
of the plant's male stamens.
These were further subdivided into
additional classes according to the
number of female pistils and styles.
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Linnaeus
Initially, there was some debate and not
too subtle jealousy among competing
botanists over Latin binomials. Eventually,
Latin binomials (Genus species) became
the standard for naming plants.
However, if a botanist disliked a
particular name, he would just assign it
another name.
Also, new plants could be assigned multiple
names without botanists realizing it.
There was a need for some standards.
Linnaeus
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