Common Plant Names

Everybody uses local or common plant names on a daily basis, whether for fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, garden plants or wild plants. The problem with using common names is that ‘ local names or the common name ’ varies often from place to place.

This becomes a problem when communicating with people from different parts of the world. Also, Common names given to plants, depending on regions are easier to remember but cause much confusion when used one common name is used to refer to several different plants or when a single plant seem to have several common names.

As a solution to avoid such confusions and many other reasons plants, like any other living organism, are given botanical names based on an internationally accepted system for naming each unique and distinct plant, whether natural or cultivated. This provides people world-wide, a way to refer to a distinctly identified and classified plant using the same accepted name.

Botanical Plant Names

Carl Linnaeus standardized plant naming in the 18th century, brought order into botanical nomenclature by means of a Latin Binomial System, in which the first name represented genus, and the second, species. He became known as the Father of Taxonomy. Under this system precise naming of plant is done to identifying them accurately and every plant given it's own unmistakable botanical name and identity, with certain exceptions.

Sometimes under the Binomial System plant names are referred to as the “ scientific name ” or the “ Latin name ”. This is a misnomer as these names are neither scientific nor always based in Latin, but should be properly referred to as the botanic or botanical name (although it is usually written in a Latin form).

This system for classifying and communicating about plants, provides a common foundation for sharing identification and information across disciplines, cultures, and broad geographic areas. Botanical names provide a genealogical framework designating family, genus, and species that allows a quick reference for relationships of form, habit, and healing attributes, among other things.

The rules of naming are governed by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN or “ Botanical Code ” ) and the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP or “ Cultivated Plant Code ”).

Overall responsibility for the Botanical Code is vested in the International Union of Biological

Sciences (IUBS), though this is delegated to the International Commission for Botanical Nomenclature. The Cultivated Plant Code is the responsibility of a different IUBS commission, the International Commission for the Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants. The ICBN and ICNCP is in turn updated from time to time by a world-wide group of botanists.

Understanding Botanical Names

When one makes a visit to the world of plants, a basic understanding of botanical names makes one more comfortable in his understanding of the plants.

Common Name	Botanical Name
Drumsticks	Craspedia globosa
Creeping Zinnia	Sanvitalia procumbens

The botanical names consist of two parts, "Genus" first name with a capitalized first letter, and a "species" epithet second name (lower case), both usually italicized. Together they make up the species name. Informally, the species epithet (in this case procumbens) is sometimes referred to as the species name; this is technically incorrect and has to be avoided when precision is required.

Genus name (e.g. Salvia) + Species epithet (e.g. viridis)

? Species name (Salvia viridis)



1. Genus:
A genus refers to a group of species of plants that share certain structural characteristics as determined by botanical study. The genus name, a noun, may come from mythology, literature, or other sources which refer to something the plant resembles.

2. Species epithet:
The species, an adjective, often refers to a place, the plant's characteristics/appearance, or the name of the person credited with discovering it. Species are botanically classified by analysis of the flower parts and characteristics for flowering plants, and by the seed/cone for coniferous and other non-flowering plants. This is why plants with distinctively different foliage or other characteristics can be classified as the same species. Species is abbreviated sp. or spp.

Here is a list of few species epithet and what they mean.

To know the meanings of all click here to go to Glossary ? Plant Names.

Aroma/Scents (smell)

arom	odor
dulce	sweet
fragrans	fragrant
fragrantissima	very fragrant
mosch	musk odor
odorata	scented

Colors of Flowers or Foliage

alba, albi, albus	white, e.g. Argemone albiflora
arg, argenteus	silvery For example, Thuja plicata 'Atrovirens', which has dark green leaves .
ater	black
Atro	dark
aurantiaca	orange
aureus	golden
aure, aurea, aureum	gold, Golden (e.g. Bidens aurea)
azurea, azureus	azure, sky blue
caesius	blue gray
caerula	deep blue
candidus	pure white, shiny
canus	ashy gray, hoary
carneus	flesh colored
citrinus	yellow
coeruleus	dark blue
coccineus	scarlet
concolor	one color
croceus	yellow
cruentus	bloody
discolor	two or separate colors
flava, flavum, flavus	yellow, Yellow/green (e.g. Cornus sericea ‘Flaviramea')
glaucus	covered with gray bloom
griseum	gray
incanus	gray, hoary
lutea, luteus	reddish yellow
miniata	of a reddish color
nigra	black
purpurea, purpureus	purple
rosea	rose-colored
rubens, ruber	red, ruddy
rubra, rubrum	red
rufus	ruddy
sanguinea	blood-red
viridis	green

Size

compacta	compact (e.g. Achillea compacta)
gigantea	Big (e.g. Stipa gigantea).
pumila	Dwarf (e.g. Ficus pumila or dwarf fig).
pygmaea	Small (e.g. Nymphaea pygmaea Rubra or water lily ‘Red Pygmy')

Flower types

centifolia	100 leaves/petals (e.g. Rosa centifolia)
nudiflorum	Literally ‘naked flowered’ meaning that the plant flowers when there are no leaves on the plant (e.g. Jasminum nudiflorum)
regale	Magnificent (e.g. Lilium regale or regal lily)
spectabilis	Showy (e.g. Dicentra spectabilis).

Habitats

aquatica	Growing in or near water (e.g. Mentha aquatica)
arenarius	Sandy (e.g. Dianthus arenarius, or sand pink)
littoralis	Near the sea shore (e.g. Griselinia littoralis)
maritima	Near the sea (e.g. Armeria maritima or sea thrift)
montana	Mountain (e.g. Clematis montana)
palustris	Marshy (e.g. Caltha palustris or marsh marigold)
rupestris	Growing amongst rocks (e.g. Umbilicus rupestris or navelwort)
riparius	of river banks

How it grows

altus	tall
arborescens, Arboreum	treelike (e.g. Aeonium arboreum)
arundinacea	Reed-like (e.g. Stipa arundinacea)
biennial	Flowers in second year and generally dies after flowering (e.g. Digitalis purpurea, or foxglove)
columnaris	Upright habit (e.g. Chamaecyparis columnaris)
compacta	Compact (e.g. Ilex glabra 'Compacta')
Contortus	twisted
erecta	Upright (e.g. Tagetes erecta)
elata	tall
elegans	elegant, slender, willowy
recta, erecta	upright, erect
fastigiata	Having erect and almost parallell branches (e.g. Taxus baccata ‘Fastigiata’).
fruticosa	shrublike
grand, grandi	big
horizontalis	Flat (e.g. Cotoneaster horizontalis)
humilis	low-growing
nana	dwarf, miniature
pendula	drooping, pendulous, or weeping (e.g. Betual pendula or weeping birch)
procumbens	Lying down or scrambling (e.g. Fuchsia procumbens)
prostrat, prostratum, procumbens	prostrate
pumilia	low-growing, dwarf
pyramidalis	Growing in a pyramid or conical shape (e.g. Juniperus chinensis ‘Pyramidalis’)
repens, reptans	creeping, (e.g. Mahonia repens)
scandens	climbing

Leaf Shape and Form

acerifolius	maplelike leaves
abr	delicate leaved
angustifolius	narrow leaves
aquifolius	spiney leaves
buxifolius	leaves like boxwood
crispum/crispa	Curly (Petroselinum crispum or curly leaved parsely)
elliptica	Ellipse shaped leaved (e.g. Garrya elliptica)
glabrum	Smooth, hairless (e.g. Acer glabrum)
hederifolium	Ivy-leaved (e.g. Cyclamen hederifolium)
hirta	Hairy (e.g. Rudbeckia hirta)
ilicifolius	hollylike leaves
lanceolata	lance-shaped
latifolia	Broad-leaved (e.g. Kalmia latifolia)
lauriflolius	laurel-like leaves
longifolia	long-leaved
macrophylla	large-leaved
microphylla	small-leaved
parvifolia	small leaves
palmate, palmatum	hand-shaped leaves
populifolius	poplarlike leaves
rotundifolia	round-leaved
salicifolius	willowlike leaves

Place

aethiopium	Africa
alpin	alpine regions
andi	Andes
antill	West Indies
australis	southern
barbadensis	native to Barbados
campestris	of the field or plains
canadensis	from Canada or America
canariensis	from the Canary Islands
capensis	from the Cape of Good Hope
chilensis	from Chile
chinensis	from China
europa	from Europe
hortensis	of the garden
insularis	of the island
japonica, japonicum	from Japan
littoralis	of the seashore
virginiana	from Virginia

Plant Peculiarities

acaulis	stemless
amabile, amabilis	beautiful
blanda	pleasent
communis	common
contorta	contorted growth habit
cordata	heart-shaped
crispa	finely waved, curled
florida, floridus	flowering
gracilis	graceful
grandiflora	large-flowered

References: 1. Bailey, L. H., "How Plants Get Their Names," Dover Publications, 1963.
2. Baumgardt, John Philip, "How to Identify Flowering Plant Families", Timber Press
3. Stearn, W. T., "Botanical Latin, History, Grammar, Syntax, Terminology and Vocabulary," 4th Edition, 1995, Timber Press.
4. Coombes, Allen J., "The Dictionary of Plant Names", Timber Press.
5. Baumgardt, John Philip, "How to Identify Flowering Plant Families", Timber Press.
6. Kvaalen, R., "Help for the Binomially Challenged," in "The American Gardener," Publication of the AHS, Vol. 75, No. 3, May/June 1996, pp. 48-49.
7. Porter, C. L., "Taxonomy of Flowering Plants," W. H. Freeman and Co, 1959.
8. Moldenke, Harold N. "A Brief Course in Elementary Systematic Botany for Gardeners," 1947 s 130    This hard-to-find volume is well worth the search; it is crammed full of information not found in the other references.
9. Zimmer, G. F., "A Popular Dictionary of Botanical Names and Terms with their English Equivalents"; edition 2, 1932.