Flexi Looks at Unit 829 or Plant Nomenclature
September 24, 2007 at 8:23 am (Uncategorized)
Ok so back to work on gathering learning resources ! Today I am inspired to look at Botanic (bow-tan-ic) nomenclature (no-men-kla-chir).What the ? you ask well check out this wiki page for a bit of an introduction.
When I decided to study horticulture and start my own gardening business I was living in Melbourne,Australia.I studied part-time,mostly at night, at the Victorian College of Agriculture and Horticulture situated on the Burnley campus which was dedicated to horticulture studies.Of course one of my first subjects was called plant identification and when I was first introduced to the world of botanic names I was overwhelmed! In fact I thought I would not pass this subject let alone embrace this foreign language that includes plant names like….say Schoenoplectus lacustris subsp. tabernaemontani ‘Zebrinus’.However, ten or so years later I have learned the value of this international language and have a fairly good plant knowledge but also have to admit that there are many plants I don’t know.The trick is (as always) to take one step at a time.
Why use plant nomenclature? Well I trawled the innernet and found the following explanation which was a bit wordy
1. Botany requires a precise and simple system of nomenclature used by botanists in all countries, dealing on the one hand with the terms which denote the ranks of taxonomic groups or units, and on the other hand with the scientific names which are applied to the individual taxonomic groups of plants. The purpose of giving a name to a taxonomic group is not to indicate its characters or history, but to supply a means of referring to it and to indicate its taxonomic rank. This Code aims at the provision of a stable method of naming taxonomic groups, avoiding and rejecting the use of names which may cause error or ambiguity or throw science into confusion. Next in importance is the avoidance of the useless creation of names. Other considerations, such as absolute grammatical correctness, regularity or euphony of names, more or less prevailing custom, regard for persons, etc., notwithstanding their undeniable importance, are relatively accessory.
2.The reason I like botanic names or botanical names (botanic and botanical are both acceptable)is that they are more reliable than common names.For example in my duties as a horticulture technician I may be asked to go to a local nursery and purchase a pepper tree.When I ask the nursery worker to direct me to a pepper tree I may be presented with four completely different plants! Would madame like the Pseudowintera colorata , Macropiper excelsum , Schinus mollee var.areira or the Piper nigrum?
3.Common names are an acceptable way of communicating about plants and often they descibe some notable feature about that plant.For example , tree fern , is going to give you a pretty good idea of what type of plant you may be talking about . However, once you start to delve into the world of botanic names you will soon start to realize that a botanic name may give information about a plant’ structure , characteristics , geographic location , and perhaps what family of plants it may belong to. You will get more bang for your buck once you start to get a handle on this two name scientific classification sytem.
4.Botanic names ,botanic nomenclature ,scientific plant names , the binomial system are all ways of describing the two name way of recognizing plants.In fact in horticulture there is often many ways or terms for describing the same thing but thankfully with plant names there is no confusion and an even more clear cut aspect of botanic names is that they are international so botanists and horticulturists from all parts of the world will refer to the same botanic name for any given plant.Absolutely no confusion will result. A Cyathea dealbata in New Zealand will be a Cyathea dealbata en France.
What is the binomial system?
All plants have a scientific name or botanic name and as previosly discussed we know we use a two name classification system.This two name system was the brain wave of a naturalist , botanist ,and explorer who would have turned 300 in May 2007.His name is Carl Linnaeus and he called the sytem for dividing all plants , animals , and minerals into three seperate kingdoms the “Systema Naturae”.I guess Linnaeus felt he could improve on the system which named plants according to what they looked like.For example, before the binomial system was introduced if you popped into the shop to ask for catnip you would ask for Nepetus floribus interrupte spicatis pedunculatiss! Which in latin means Nepeta with flowers on an uninterrupted spike that is cat like.Hmmmm yah so the sun may set and risen again before you actually asked for and then walked out of the shop with your catnip.
