Succulent Plant Site | Names

Botanical Plant Names

A look at how plants are named and why they are classified in a specirfic group.

We have a man by the name of Carl von Linne, also known as Linneaus, to thank for the way we classify plants and animals.  Linneaus devised a system of categorizing animals and plants into specific groups.  The groups that are used the most amongst us laypersons are family, genera and species.  One (monotypic) or more varieties makes up a species, one or more species makes a genera, one or more genera makes a family.

• Family
  Plants that belong to a family share general characteristics, a Genera contains plants with more specific characteristics.  For instance Tridentea, Hoodia, Stapelia and Huernia all belong to the family Asclepiadaceae because they all have five-lobed flowers that smell rotten.

• Genera
  The genera follows a family, eg Stapelia, plants in a certain genera share certain characteristics.  The genus Tridentea is made up of ascleps that outer corona lobes are three toothed.

• Species (spp)
  Species is defined as plants that are capable of interbreeding with one another.  The species part of the name also denotes a plant that is different from other plants in the genera, eg. kwebenis. 

• Variety (Var.)
  A var. is a subdivision of a species consisting of naturally occurring or selectively bred populations or individuals that differ from the remainder of the species in certain minor characters, eg. Lithops hookeri var lutea.

• Subspecies (subsp, ssp)
  A subsp. is a subdivision of a species usually based on geographic distribution, eg. Conophytum bilobum ssp altum.

The person who discovered the plant first will be the one to name it.  The plant may be named after a person, place, distinguishing feature or anything the discoverer would like unless the name is already in use with another plant in the genus.  Some plant names end in ae or ii, in latin ae is the feminine ending and ii is the male ending.

• Edithcolea grandis - grandis for the grand flower. 

• Euphorbia namibensis - as the species name states, this plant is found in Namibia.

• Conophytum bilobum - named after their distinctive two lobed bodies.

• Hoodia gordonii - an example of the male ending

• Aloe peglerae - an example of the female ending.