Why botanical names? 

Many people are at odds with the botanical plant names. They consider those names incomprehensible, hard to pronounce, absolutely impossible to remember and altogether unnecessary. Why can’t we simply use the common English names? 

Common plant names are not clear 

When two persons communicate it is necessary that there exists an implicit consent on the meaning of the words they use. In most cases the meaning of the words is clear: ‘table’ everywhere means ‘table’, ‘chair’ means ‘chair’ everywhere. These words are used in the same way throughout the English-speaking part of the world, for they are important terms of daily life. Plant names are different in this respect since it is seldom necessary to discuss plants in detail. Thus most plant names are used only localy or among a certain group of individuals. Most native plants bear a lot of native names. The more widespread a plant occurs, the more native names usualy exist for this plant. It is the same situation with most languages. I asked around in my family (we speak German) for the names for Primula veris that are used and received the following names: 

Himmelsschlüssel 

Schlüsselblume 

Primel 

Blattenilge 

Gaggeila 

Badengala  

The first three names are understood throughout Germany, the last three ones are known only in our region. The first three names do carry the disadvantage of being general names, every kind of Primula can be called ‘Himmelsschlüssel’, ‘Schlüsselblume’ or ‘Primel’. Our local names do not carry this disadvange, but they are only understood in a very small region – travel just a few villages far and nobody will understand them. As a horticulturist I can’t use any of the six names if I want to make sure that my customers get exactly the plant they want to order. 

Sometimes the same name is used for very different plants. ‘Buttercup’ may refer to Ranunculus (no matter which species), to Caltha palustris or even to Taraxacum officinale. Probably the word is used for several more plants. What they have in common is just the colour: bright yellow. 

Most plants even have no English or German name at all. It is evident for plants from other continents, those plants were simply not known here until recently. But it is also true for many native plants. If a plant had no significance or use in daily life it received no specific name. It is a legend that people in the past had more knowledge of plants than people nowadays. Only useful plants were know and there was hardly any interest in the other ones.  

Things become more complicated if you communicate with someone who speaks an foreign language. An Italian nursery owner would hardly understand the names his German collegue uses. How could  a botanists from Brasil and a botanist Indonesia be sure they speak about the same plant? 

The binary nomenclature 

Therefore it was necessary to create the system of botanical plant names. It was introduced by Carl von Linné, a Swedish scientist of the 18th century. He invented the ‘binary nomenclature’ which gives a definite name to every  plant and every animal. 

In simple terms the system gives name and surname to every plant. Plants that are related carry the same ‚surname’. If you know the surname you will have a first idea what that plant will look like, even if you haven’t seen it before.

Plants introduce themselves just like Hungarians and Bavarians do: first they say their surname followed by their christian name. 

So it is 

Weiß Ferdl – not Ferdl Weiß 

Molnár Ferenc – not Ferenc Molnár 

Primula veris – not veris Primula 

The genus 

Instead of ‚surname’ botany uses the term ‚genus’. All members of a genus have common characteristics, just like members of a family do. In most cases the name of a genus is taken from Latin or ancient Greek. Sometimes it is a word that explains itself, like ‘Campanula’ (= little bell) for the genus of the bellflowers. Sometimes the word is an ancient plant name like ‘Gentiana’ (the genus of the gentianes) Sometimes the genus is named in honour of a person like ‘Fuchsia’, that was named after 16th century botanist Leonhard Fuchs.  

The species 

Instead of ‚name’ or ‚christian name’ botany uses the therm ‘specific epithet’. In combination with the name of the genus the result is a unique name that is used for exactly one species. In most cases the epithet is taken from Latin and it always uses Latin endings (to those who speak Latin: the epithet is the adjective, in fits to the name of the genus in gender and number).  In our example the botanical name Primula veris is composed of ‘Primula’ (= genus of primroses) and ‘veris’ (= ‘true’).  

The epithet 

You can take a lot of information from an epithet even if you don’t understand Latin at all. It is just necessary to learn a few terms that are used again and again with botanical plant names. For example the epithet ‘officinalis’ (= from the pharmacy) always indicates that a plant was used in medicine. Often the epithet informs on the origin of a plant. Primula japonica is a primrose from Japan, Primula tibetica is a primrose from Tibet. Very often those local epithets do have the ending ‘-ensis’’. Iris missouriensis ist he name of an Iris from Missouri. 

Very often the epithet informs on the conditions in which a plant occurs: 

aquaticus = living in water 

lacustris = living in lakes 

maritimus = living at the sea 

palustris = living in bogs 

pratensis = living in meadows 

rivalis = living at rivers 

Sometimes the epithet compares the plant to a similar looking plant. In this case it receives the ending ‘-oides’ (thats ancient Greek for ‘looking like’) (= ähnlich): 

aloides = looking like an Aloe 

The epitheton may simply tell the most prominent characteristic of a plant: 

giganteus = gigantic 

gracilis = graceful 

grandis = big 

longus = long 

maximus = the biggest one 

minimus = the smalllest one 

odoratus = fragrant 

superbus = splendid 

undulatus = undulated 

Very important are colours, they can refer to the colour of the flowers or of the foliage: 

albus = white 

aurantiacus = golden 

azureus = azure 

caesius = bluish grey 

carneus = flesh-coloured 

citrinus = lemon yellow 

coccineus = scarlet 

coeruleus = blue 

flavus = yellow 

fuscus = brown 

glaucus = teal 

luteus = yellow 

niger = black 

niveus = snow white 

purpureus = purple 

roseus = pink 

ruber = red 

sanguineus = crimson 

violaceus = violet 

viridis = green 

Sometimes a colour receives the ending ‚-escens’, meaning that the colour changes into this colour: 

flavesens = turning yellow 

rubescens = turning red 

Some epithets however provide no information on the plant. Those are usualy epithets that were didicated to someone. Especially the early botanists loved to honour others (sometimes even themselves) by using his or her name as epithet: 

fuchsii = named after Leonhard Fuchs 

sieboldii = named after Philipp Franz von Seibold 

thunbergii = named after Carl Peter Thunberg 

Not always the honoured persons do feel honoured. In 2005 three new round fungus beetles were discovered and received scientific names: 

Agathidium bushi 

Agathidium cheneyi

Agathidium rumsfeldi 

They were named in honour of former US president George W. Bush, fromer US vice president Cheney and former US minister of defences Rumsfeld. It is not known if they felt honoured. 

Finaly some formalism: names in the binary system are always written in italics. The genus is always spelled with the first letter in capitals, the epithet is spelled completely in minuscules. The epithet is followed by an abbreviation in small capitals that informs on the person who named the plant. For example L. stands for Linné. Nurseries usualy omit this abbreviation although it is part of the formal name.The name of our example plant is spelled correctly like this: 

Primula veris L.