Descriptive botanical names are
scientific names of groups of plants that are irregular, not being derived systematically from the name of a
type genus
In biological taxonomy, the type genus (''genus typica'') is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name.
Zoological nomenclature
According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearin ...
. They may describe some characteristics of the group in general or may be a name already in existence before regularised scientific nomenclature.
Descriptive names can occur above or at the rank of
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
. There is only a single descriptive below the rank of family (the subfamily
Papilionoideae).
Above the rank of family
Descriptive names above the rank of family are governed by Article 16 of the
(ICN), which rules that a name above the rank of family may either be ‘automatically typified’ (such as Magnoliophyta and Magnoliopsida from the type genus ''Magnolia'') or be descriptive.
Descriptive names of this type may be used unchanged at different ranks (without modifying the suffix). These descriptive plant names are decreasing in importance, becoming less common than ‘automatically typified names’, but many are still in use, such as:
: Plantae,
Algae
Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...
,
Musci,
Fungi
A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...
,
Embryophyta,
Tracheophyta
Vascular plants (), also called tracheophytes (, ) or collectively tracheophyta (; ), are plants that have lignin, lignified tissues (the xylem) for conducting water and minerals throughout the plant. They also have a specialized non-lignified Ti ...
,
Spermatophyta,
Gymnospermae,
Coniferae,
Coniferales,
Angiospermae,
Monocotyledones,
Dicotyledones
The dicotyledons, also known as dicots (or, more rarely, dicotyls), are one of the two groups into which all the flowering plants (angiosperms) were formerly divided. The name refers to one of the typical characteristics of the group: namely, ...
, etc.
Many of these descriptive names have a very long history, often preceding
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
. Some are
Classical Latin
Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a Literary language, literary standard language, standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It formed parallel to Vulgar Latin around 75 BC out of Old Latin ...
common nouns in the
nominative
In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case, or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, or (in Latin and formal variants of E ...
plural, meaning for instance ‘the plants’, ‘the seaweeds’, ‘the mosses’. Like all names above the rank of family, these names follow the Latin grammatical rules of nouns in the plural, and are written with an initial capital letter.
At the rank of family
Article 18.5 of the ICN allows a descriptive name, of long usage, for the following eight families. For each of these families there also exists a name based on the name of an included genus (an alternative name that is also allowed, here in parentheses):
* Compositae = "
composites" (alternative name: Asteraceae, based on the genus
''Aster'')
* Cruciferae = "cross-bearers" (alternative name: Brassicaceae, based on the genus ''
Brassica'')
* Gramineae = "grasses" (alternative name: Poaceae, based on the genus ''
Poa
''Poa'' is a genus of about 570 species of Poaceae, grasses, native to the temperate regions of both hemispheres. Common names include meadow-grass (mainly in Europe and Asia), bluegrass (mainly in North America), tussock (some New Zealand spe ...
'')
* Guttiferae = "latex-carriers" (alternative name: Clusiaceae, based on the genus ''
Clusia'')
* Labiatae = "lipped ones" (alternative name: Lamiaceae, based on the genus ''
Lamium
''Lamium'' (dead-nettles) is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, of which it is the type genus. They are all herbaceous plants native to Eurasia and northern Africa, with several widely naturalised across muc ...
'')
* Leguminosae = "legumes" (alternative name: Fabaceae, based on the genus ''Faba'', now considered a section of genus ''
Vicia'')
* Palmae = "palms" (alternative name: Arecaceae, based on the genus ''
Areca
''Areca'' is a genus of 51 species of Arecaceae, palms in the family (biology), family Arecaceae, found in humid tropical forests from the islands of the Philippines and Malaysia, India, and across Southeast Asia to Melanesia. The generic name ' ...
'')
* Umbelliferae = "parasol-bearers" (alternative name: Apiaceae, based on the genus ''
Apium'')
Subfamily
Special provision has been made in Article 19.8 for the plant subfamily name
Papilionoideae to be an alternative name of the subfamily Faboideae, because the family Papilionaceae had previously been
conserved when many botanists considered it to be a separate family from Fabaceae (Leguminosae).
This name is not based on any plant genus named ''
Papilio'' (a butterfly), but is a descriptive name meaning that the plant has butterfly-like flowers.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Descriptive Botanical Names
Botanical nomenclature