Botanical name

Bellis perennis has one botanical name and many common names, including perennial daisy, lawn daisy, common daisy, English daisy

A botanical name is a formal scientific name conforming to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN) and, if it concerns a plant cultigen, the additional cultivar and/or Group epithets must conform to the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP). The code of nomenclature covers "all organisms traditionally treated as algae, fungi, or plants, whether fossil or non-fossil, including blue-green algae (Cyanobacteria), chytrids, oomycetes, slime moulds and photosynthetic protists with their taxonomically related non-photosynthetic groups (but excluding Microsporidia)."[1]

The purpose of a formal name is to have a single name that is accepted and used worldwide for a particular plant or plant group. For example, the botanical name Bellis perennis denotes a plant species which is native to most of the countries of Europe and the Middle East, where it has accumulated various names in many languages. Later it has been introduced worldwide, bringing it into contact with more languages. English names for this plant species include: daisy,[2] English daisy,[3] and lawn daisy.[4] The cultivar Bellis perennis 'Aucubifolia' is a golden-variegated horticultural selection of this species.

Type specimens and circumscription

The botanical name itself is fixed by a type, which is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralize the defining features of that particular taxon.

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, depending on the taxonomic system, thus, the group that a particular botanical name refers to can be quite small according to some people and quite big according to others. For example, the traditional view of the family Malvaceae has been expanded in some modern approaches to include what were formerly considered to be several closely related families. Some botanical names refer to groups that are very stable (for example Equisetaceae, Magnoliaceae) while for other names a careful check is needed to see which circumscription is being used (for example Fabaceae, Amygdaloideae, Taraxacum officinale).

Forms of botanical names

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)
Marchantiophyta (the liverworts)
Magnoliopsida (class including the family Magnoliaceae)
Liliidae (subclass including the family Liliaceae)
Pinophyta (the conifers)
Fagaceae (the beech family)
Betula (the birch genus)
in two parts
Acacia subg. Phyllodineae (the wattles)
Berberis thunbergii (Japanese barberry)
in three parts
Calystegia sepium subsp. americana (American hedge bindweed)
Crataegus azarolus var. pontica (a Mediterranean hawthorn)

A name in three parts, i.e., an infraspecific name (a name for a taxon below the rank of species) needs a "connecting term" to indicate rank. In the Calystegia 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, subspecies, so that this "connecting term" is unnecessary there). A name of a "subdivision of a genus" also needs a connecting term (in the Acacia example above, this is "subg.", subgenus). The 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. (ICN Art 24: Ex 1).

Generic, specific, and infraspecific botanical names are usually printed in italics. The example set by the ICN is to italicize all botanical names, including those above genus, though the ICN preface states: "The Code sets no binding standard in this respect, as typography is a matter of editorial style and tradition not of nomenclature". Most peer-reviewed scientific botanical publications do not italicize names above the rank of genus, and non-botanical scientific publications do not, which is in keeping with two of the three other kinds of scientific name: zoological and bacterial (viral names above genus are italicized, a new policy adopted in the early 1990s).

For botanical nomenclature, the ICN prescribes a two-part name or binary name for any taxon below the rank of genus down to, and including the rank of species. Taxa below the rank of species get a three part (infraspecific name).

The ranks explicitly mentioned in the ICN as having a binary name are:

A binary name consists of the name of a genus and an epithet.

Bellis perennis is the name of a species, with perennis the specific epithet. There is no connecting term involved, to indicate the rank
Paraserianthes sect. Falcataria
Bellis perennis is the name of a species, with perennis the specific epithet and 'Aucubifolia' the cultivar epithet.

See also

(specific to botany)

(more general)

References

  1. ↑ McNeill, J.; Barrie, F.R.; Buck, W.R.; Demoulin, V.; Greuter, W.; Hawksworth, D.L.; Herendeen, P.S.; Knapp, S.; Marhold, K.; Prado, J.; Prud'homme Van Reine, W.F.; Smith, G.F.; Wiersema, J.H.; Turland, N.J. (2012). International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Melbourne Code) adopted by the Eighteenth International Botanical Congress Melbourne, Australia, July 2011. Regnum Vegetabile 154. A.R.G. Gantner Verlag KG. ISBN 978-3-87429-425-6.
  2. ↑ Ecological Flora of the British Isles
  3. ↑ USDA Germplasm Resources Information Network
  4. ↑ L. B. McCarty (15 January 2001). Color Atlas of Turfgrass Weeds. John Wiley & Sons. p. 102. ISBN 978-1-57504-142-1.

Bibliography

External links