Download Botanical Nomenclature

Botanical Nomenclature
 Plants
may have many common
names
 Plants have only one scientific name
 Scientific names are universally
accepted
Binomial System of
Classification
 Invented
by the Swedish naturalist
Linnaeus in the year 1753
 The genus comes first and is always
capitalized and italicized
 The specific epithet comes after the
genus and is always lower case and
italicized
The Species
 The
genus and specific epithet
together form the “binomial” that
identifies a species
 Example: Cercis canadensis
Eastern Redbud
 A group of individual plants that
have a common set of identifiable
characteristics that are inheritable
 Species come “true-to-type” from
seed
The Variety
A
group of plants subordinate to the
species; differing from the species in
one or more inheritable characteristics
 Varieties come “true-to-type” from seed
 Written in lower case and italicized
 Two acceptable formats:
Cercis canadensis var. alba
or
Cercis canadensis alba
The Variety
Cercis canadensis
Cercis canadensis var. alba
The Cultivar
 In
ornamental horticulture cultivar
characteristics are, generally speaking,
not inheritable
 Cultivars, generally speaking, do not come
“true-to-type” from seed
 Cultivar names are always capitalized and
written in single quotations
 Example:
Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’
has maroon leaves that fade to green
The Cultivar
A
single species may have many cultivars
Juniperus horizontalis ‘Blue Chip’
Juniperus horizontalis ‘Plumosa’
Juniperus horizontalis ‘Hughes’ etc.
 It is possible to have a cultivar of a variety
Gleditsia triacanthos inermis ‘Skyline’
or
Cornus florida rubra ‘Cherokee Chief’
Gleditsia triacanthos
Gleditsia triacanthos
var. inermis
Gleditsia triacanthos
var. inermis ‘Skyline’
The End