Chapter 17 Naming and Organizing Plants and Microbes

Botanical Nomenclature

Historically, there have been two independent kinds of nomenclature.

Through the ages, humans have given organisms common names of local

relevance, which often reflect appearance and usefulness.

Disadvantages

Scientific names

Scientific names developed during the period from the 13th-18th century.

The process of naming plants varied from botanist to botanist.

Ex: buttercup (Polynomial system)

Ranunculus calycibus retroflexis, pedunculis falcatis,

caule Erecto, foliis compositis

“the buttercup with bent-back sepals, curved flower stalks,

erect stems and compound leaves.”

The name of a species consisted of a generic name (noun) followed by 1 or more Latin modifiers.

“The first step to wisdom is getting things by

their right names.” Chinese proverb

Nomenclature- the giving and using of names

Theobroma cacao (Malvaceae)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Luisovalles

Scientific names- (Binomial system)

Botanists gradually adopted a set of standardized

procedures for naming plants

Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1779)

(originally Carl von Linné)

Scientific names (Binomial system)

Generic name: Amorphophallus

Species name: titanum

(specific epithet)

Scientific names are generally basedin classical languages such as

Greek or Latin.

Today, we have a set of formalized rules for naming plants.

The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature

Names of Taxa above the Genus Level

Carl von Linné, Alexander Roslin, 1775. Currently

owned by and displayed at the Royal Swedish

Academy of Sciences.

Linnaeus published a book called Philosophia Botanica

The taxonomic rank can automatically be determined from the name.

Species names

Two-word name consisting of:

Generic names

red pine, (Pinus resinosa) white pine, (Pinus strobus) jack pine, (Pinus banksiana)

Ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba)

1) Generic name

2) Specific epithet

Ex: Zea mays

- Generic name (genus name) is treated as a Latin noun

Genera may include as few as one species

Specific epithet

Lotus corniculatus L.

Lotus heermannii (Dur. & Hilg.) Greene

Generic name : Lotus

The specific epithet means “bearing a horn-like projection”

The second species was named after A.L. Heerman (Heerman’s lotus)

The specific epithet was originally named by E.M. Durand and T.C. Hilgard.

Greene transferred the specific epithet heermannii from the genus Hosackia to the genus Lotus.

Scientific names are often written with their author or authors.

The author(s) are the individual or individuals that have

named the plants.

Specific epithet

10 μm 10 μm

CS 416 (Type) CS-759

Nannochloropsis australis

M.W. Fawley, I. Jameson, and K.P. Fawley

Lotus heermannii (Dur. & Hilg.) Greene

Lotus corniculatus L.

The author for the specific epithet corniculatus:

Parenthetical authors:

Combining author:

Scientific names of commercial ornamental or garden plants are often followed by a variety or cultivar name.

Variety

Cultivar

Plant names also may signify subspecies, varieties or cultivars

The two-part (binomial) scientific name may be followed by a subspecies name.

Subspecies

Prunus persica Prunus persica var. nucipersica (or var. nectarina)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peach#/media/File:

White_nectarine_and_cross_section02_edit.jpg

https://www.facebook.com/peachpickinparadise/

Zea mays subspecies mays Zea mays subspecies parviglumis

Solanum lycopersicum

Cherokee purple

http://www.rareseeds.com/cherokee-purple-tomato/

Solanum lycopersicum

Pink Berkley tie-dye

http://www.rareseeds.com/pink-berkeley-tie-dye-tomato/

Hybrid result from crossbreeding between two species or two genera.

Hybrids that maintain characteristics different from their parent and do not

crossbreed with parents are given their own species names.

Ex: orchid hybrid

Laeliocatteya

Named for parent genera - Laelio and Catteya

Around the world there are many important plant collections known as

herbaria (sing. herbarium).

Herbarium specimens

Resources for identifying plants include identification keys

Professional biologists use dichotomous keys

Plants and other organisms are classified according to relationships.

-bryophytes

-lycophytes

-ferns

-gymnosperms

-angiosperms

Herbaria

-commonly consist of dried plants

-pressed, mounted, and labeled

A dichotomous key uses a series of paired

mutually exclusive statements that divides a

set of objects into progressively smaller

subsets.

Fungi, algae, and bacteria

How do we classify all of this diversity?

Linnaeus advanced the science of classification by using floral

characteristics to organize flowering plants.

Theophrastus (371 – 287 BC)

Plants and other organisms are classified according to

relationships.

Ex: Difference species of Begonia

Plants were then classified into smaller groups based on

the basis of vegetative characteristics (Ex: leaves).

The structure of plant stems, leaves, and roots are often more

strongly influenced by the environment in which it evolved.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theophrast

us#/media/File:Teofrasto_Orto_botanic

o_detail.jpg

He organized the 500 plants known by the ancient Greeks

into three main categories:

Using reproductive characteristics (flowers;

fruits) and molecular evidence

Study outline for Chapter 17-Naming and Organizing Plants and Microbes

-Know terms-nomenclature, common name, scientific name

-Understand the disadvantages of common names

-Understand the importance of scientific names (polynomial system) and the Linnaean system (binomial system)

-Understand International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and the concept of taxonomic rank

-Understand the different parts of a species name-generic name, specific epithet, author, parenthetical author,

combining author

-Understand intraspecific taxa; Know terms-subspecies, varieties, cultivar, hybrid

-Know the importance of a herbarium and use of dichotomous keys

-What are some of the characteristics upon which modern plant classification is based?

-Why are reproductive characteristics, such as the structure of the flowers, used more heavily than root, stem, and

leaf anatomy?