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Carl, Kings, and Crème de Menthe
Plant Taxonomy in Three Easy Pieces
by
Edward A. Munns, Jr.
1. Carl
The binomial nomenclature of plants can be attributed to an eighteenth century
Swedish botanist named Carl Linnaeus. His early medical studies and his attraction to
natural history, especially botany, helped to form the basis of the universal plant naming
scheme using Latin. Linnaeus was obsessed with order and categorizing elements
especially in nature. He likened the different plants as if it were a society consisting of
“Kingdoms, provinces, hundreds, districts and individual small holdings” (1). Linnaeus
used sexual characteristics to break down plants into smaller elements. In 1741 he was
named a professor of Medicine in Uppsala, Sweden and continued refining his work in
listing and categorizing all things in Nature – both plant and animal.
He was fortunate that world exploration was approaching a Golden Age and
Swedish adventurers were attracted to his teachings. A host of plant pioneers dutifully
collected and sent back new discoveries from Asia, North, and South America. In
gratitude, Linnaeus honored their work by naming many plant genera after them.
Travelers like Peter Kalm, Andreas Dahl, Olof Rudbeck, Carl Peter Thunberg (as well as
Linnaeus himself) all now have a permanent place in our flora nomenclature: dahlia;
rudbeckia; thunbergia; Kalmia.
2. Kings
The binomial nomenclature classification system that Carl Linnaeus developed
begins at the top with Kingdom, just like the society in which he lived. Today we
recognize the animal Kingdom and the plant Kingdom as the two branches of living
things (although some scientists have trouble cataloging some single celled organisms
and other beings located near geyser vents in mid-ocean). Kingdom plantae is further
divided into smaller categories as follows: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family,
Genus, and Species. The most commonly referred to divisions in horticulture, however,
are family, genus and species. Genus is always capitalized and italicized; species is
always italicized. Varieties and cultivars appear at the end after the abbreviation “var.”
or “cv.” Learning the full name of a plant from Kingdom to species can be difficult if it
weren’t for a famous mnemonic that all students of horticulture should know:
KINGS PLAY CHESS ON FINE GREEN SLATE. Just match up the first letter of
this sentence with the categories of Kingdom plantae.
3. Crème de Menthe
What could be finer than having a scoop of French vanilla ice cream splashed
with an ounce of crème de menthe? This dessert combines the essence of two plants,
vanilla and mint. The hand-pollinated vanilla orchid produces a seed pod that is prepared
by drying and soaking in a solution that extracts the essence that we know as vanilla
flavor. The crème de menthe is produced in a process where the oils from the mint plant
leaves are extracted and infused with an alcohol base. What a wonderful blend of flavors
from two different families of plants. The full name of the mint is:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Lamiaceae
Genus: Mentha [Linnaeus]
Species: aquatica
The genus Mentha was personally named by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and thus his name is
memorialized in full or abbreviated [L.] in scientific publications. I wonder if Carl
Linnaeus enjoyed his bowl of vanilla ice cream after having named the topping?
Resources
1. Carl Linnaeus, pamphlet by Gunnar Broberg. Swedish Institute Press, 1999.
2. The Constant Gardener, article by Emily Hiestand. Atlantic Magazine, March 2007.
3. Personal visit to Swedish Embassy to view “Men Around Linnaeus: Botanical
Watercolors by Annika Silander-Hokerberg”, April 2003.
4. Botanical Latin 101, internet article by Fran Gustman for “Wild Ones Journal” June
12, 2005
5. Taxonomy of Mentha, internet download from Bay Science Foundation, Inc., Sept. 5,
2007.