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By John Van Etten, CGM

Every year for both of my daughters’ elementary school classes I have volunteered and given talks. They have ranged in theme topic, some were about mammals, animal tracks, birds, etc. but most of them were about plants.  I always prepare diligently before any presentation but probably even more so for children than professionals. You know, they ask you questions you might have never even considered. That’s their job and they do it well! I decided to convert all of my recent preparations into a short article to maximize my efforts. My third grader has been studying botany in her fall section of science. In the past I presented the following presentations “Why Leaves Turn Colors,” and “Seeds and Fruits of Plants and Bulbs.” I always bring props, I like tactile demonstrations, it keeps the audience engaged, so I would bring in black walnuts, Osage oranges, etc...you get the point. I never do the same lecture twice so I needed an idea for this go around.

After helping my daughter on a plant adaptation project we named her fictitious plant, an idea was born!  Nomenclature! I kept the presentation fun and taught them how descriptive nomenclature can be. For the fun part;  huge Alocasia leaves represented macrophylla (Large leaf ) SaintPaulia represented pubescent (silky hairs), Cycas represented aculeata (prickly leaf), Plectranthus demonstrated dentated leaf margins. More props were used to include colors, habits, numbers and other terminology used in nomenclature. After that exercise we got creative and every student made a fictitious plant that got its very own name. My example was a tribute to my daughter Haley. I traced my palm, added some basal leaves and topped each finger tip with a bright pink plume. The plant of course was:  Palmated coccineaplumosa ‘Pink Haleyii’
 
The father of the language of plants, and for that matter animals, was Carl von Linne, commonly known as Linnaeus. In 1753 Linne wrote a book, Species Plantarum. In it he devised a binomial system of nomenclature. This system first identifies the genus and then the specie. A step further and we have variety or cultivated variety (cultivar). Botanical nomenclature brings an exactness to the language of plants. As professionals, it is essential that we use nomenclature in all that we do, be it writing an article, site survey, professional certifications, awards programs, landscape design, budget justification, etc. Common names are arbitrary and are at best confusing for whomever uses them. Hence, the birth of the binomial system. Encouraging the use of nomenclature is professional but the use must be correct. I distinctly remember from my college days the grueling woodies tests, herbaceous tests, the studying and cramming. I did quite well, that is everything except spelling. From that day on I always double check my nomenclature spelling. Here is a quick review of the rules of nomenclature:
 
Genus - always capitalized, underlined and italicized. A genus is a weakly defined, or closely related group of plants comprising one or more species.         
 
Acer - is the genus for maples.
 
Species  - is a specific epithet that describes or characterizes the plant. The specie should always be lower case, italicized and underlined.
 
platanoides  - is the specie for Norway maple.
 
Variety and cultivars - Variety will be denoted and lower case:  Cornus florida var. rubra
Cultivars are simply expressed capitalized and in single quotes or cv written before the cultivated variety and the use of single quotes omitted:
 
Acer platanoides ‘Crimson King’
                                                                               
or

Acer platanoides  cv Crimson King 
 
(genus)   (species)         (cultivar)
 
Those are the rules, they get even more detailed if you have a cultivar of a variety, hybrids, orchids and other exceptions. If one follows the listed rules it will accommodate 99% of nomenclature usage. It will be exact and professional. It is quite often unwritten and, myself included, to not underline, but of course follow all of the other rules! Be professional ~ use nomenclature in all that you do!