Who has never been surprised or curious when he heard the name of a plant? Surely it’s also easy to wonder how it arose, from what foundations? This is such a common question among people that it is worth working here.

First of all, it is important for you to know that the creator of the plant or botanical nomenclature, as it may also be known, was Carl von Linné. The scholar, who is of Swedish origin, stands out as a botanist, zoologist and physician. He was born in the year 1707 and died in 1778. During that time, it can be said that he contributed a lot to mankind.

The name of a plant is universal, that is, the same in any part of the world. This ends up facilitating its identification, unlike the different ways in which a plant can be known. This knowledge, said to be popular, is generated through the generations through the years.

Plants: Construction of the botanical name

First of all, it is important that you know how the classification of plants is constructed. It is defined by Kingdom, followed by Division, Class and Order. Soon after comes Family, Gender and Species. However, each of these classifications are divided into other categories. This is what makes possible the existence of subspecies and varieties.

The botanical name of a plant is made up of two words. The first of them will always refer to the Gender to which the plant belongs, while the second specifies the plant within the Gender where it is integrated. The language of this nomenclature is Latin, as the intention is to make it unique, untranslatable to local languages.

Another peculiarity regarding the name of plants comes from the way it appears in the texts. The correct wording of the botanical name implies that it is written in italics and that the first word begins with a capital letter. The second must be written with a lower case letter.

In hybrid plant species

Hybrid varieties are the result of crossing two different species. In the spelling, it can be identified from the appearance of the “x” between the two words. In case the “x” appears before the two words, it is a hybrid species that results from the crossing of two varieties of two different genera.

Cultivated plants

Many of the plants in existence today have maintained and propagated characteristics different from those of their original species and are known as cultivars. These species can arise naturally or through human interference. The name of these species must be imaginary, in modern languages ​​​​(Latin is not used) written with a capital initial, being preceded by the abbreviation “cv.”, which may also appear in quotation marks.