Botanical Nomenclature

This woman explains how to classify an organism. All forms of life follow this classification system.

Corozo palm - Aiphanes eggersii

Earth StarCryptanthus bivittatus

Before Linnaeus came up with the idea of a unified naming system, science was very confusing!Using Latin for Binomial nomenclature things much more universally understandable.

Carl Linnaeus, father of taxonomy

Today, there is an International Code of Botanical Nomenclature that works as an organizational system across languages. Scientists all over the world use this system.

This pine tree is in the kingdom Plantae (plants), division Pinophyta, class Pinopsida, order Pinales, family Pinaceae and genus Pinus. The prefix pin-, in this case, refers to the latin word Pinus, meaning pine.

Botanical Nomenclatureby Emma Hewes and Francesca Oddo

How does this impact us today?Scientists are able to communicate ideas with ease and there is less confusion surrounding the names of plants.

Romans used plants for a variety of purposes, but primarily as medicine.Pliny described plants and their uses in what was essentially an encyclopedia, Historia Naturalis.