Botanical name
|
flower head of Bellis perennis |
A
botanical name is a formal name conforming to the
International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN). The purpose of such a formal name is to have a single name worldwide for a particular plant or plant group. For example the botanical name
Bellis perennis is used worldwide for a plant species that goes by numerous common names in several different languages (English names for this plant species include
lawndaisy,
common daisy,
daisy, etc)
The usefulness of botanical names is limited by the fact that taxonomic groups are not fixed in size: a taxon may have a varying
circumscription. That is, one particular botanical name may refer to a group that is small according to some people and big according to others. This will depend on taxonomic viewpoint or
taxonomic system. The traditional view of the family
Malvaceae sets the size of the family at over a thousand species, but in the modern approach it counts over four thousand species. The botanical name itself is fixed by a
type, the size and placement of the
taxon it applies to is set by a taxonomist. Some botanical names refer to groups that are very stable (for example
Leguminosae) while other names are notorious in that a careful check is needed (for example
Fabaceae,
Scrophulariaceae,
Urticaceae, etc).
Depending on
rank, botanical names may be in one part (
genus and above),
two parts (
species and above, but below the rank of genus) or
three parts (below the rank of species):
;in one part:
Plantae (the plants):
Hepaticae (the
liverworts):
Magnoliopsida (class including the family
Magnoliaceae):
Liliidae (subclass including the family
Liliaceae):
Coniferae (the
conifers):
Fagaceae (the
oak family):
Leguminosae (the pea or
legume family):
Betula (the
birch genus)
;in two parts:
Acacia subg.
Phyllodineae (the wattles):
Gossypium barbadense (Egyptian cotton)
;in three parts:
Theobroma cacao subsp.
cacao (criollo chocolate)
A name in three parts, i.e. the name of an
infraspecific taxon (below the rank of species) needs a "connecting term" to indicate rank. In the
Theobroma-example above this is "subsp." (for subspecies). In botany there are many ranks below that of species (in zoology there is only one such rank, i.e. subspecies, so that this "connecting term" is unnecessary there). A name of a "subdivison of a genus" also needs a connecting term (in the
Acacia-example above this is "subg.", subgenus). Such a connecting term is not part of the name itself.
A taxon may be indicated by a listing in more than three parts:
"Saxifraga aizoon var.
aizoon subvar.
brevifolia f.
multicaulis subf.
surculosa Engl. & Irmsch." but this is a classification, not a formal botanical name. The botanical name is
Saxifraga aizoon subf.
surculosa Engl. & Irmsch. (
ICBN, Art 24, Ex 1)
Botanical names at the rank of genus and below should be italicized when it is possible to do so. The example set by the ICBN is to italicize all botanical names at all taxonomic ranks, but a minority of botanical publications has adopted this convention. Most publications continue to use italics only for generic, specific, and infraspecific names.
A botanical name is one of several kinds of "
scientific names". Other scientific names are
zoological,
bacterial or
viral names.
