Understanding Botanical Latin

Eurybia divaricata

Known as botanical Latin or scientific Latin, it is the tongue-twisting nomenclature rooted (literally) in a language which technically does not exist. According to Wikipedia, it is a language based on New Latin and used specifically for description of organisms. For those looking to identify a plant in a serious way, it is essential—it is how you know what you really have (unlike common names which can be shared by multiple plants and which can have meanings that are not always obvious, such a plant called ‘pineland-ginseng’ which is not related to the other plant with the common name ginseng at all).

I interchangeably refer to the official name of a plant as either the scientific name or the Latin name. It is the name given by taxonomists to plants (as well as all organisms, you may know humans as Homo sapiens). Sometimes the name given never changes; sometimes the names are replaced with new (determined to be more accurate) names but they always keep the old name as a synonym. For example, the New World plants known as Aster are now reclassified into several new genera (‘genera’ is the plural of genus—they were actually split into more than one new genus). What was Aster divaricatus is now Eurybia divaricata. A surprising number of nurseries still call it that.

Botanical Latin is composed of two parts: the genus name which is a noun and is always capitalized (Quercus for oak);  and the species epithet which is an adjective, is not capitalized, and often provides some descriptive information (such as alba, indicating white: Quercus alba). Then the whole thing is italicized. Occasionally, the species name may be hyphenated but remains a single adjective: Athyrium filix-femina for lady fern. Varieties and subspecies may add extra terms beyond the species epithet: Chrysogonum virginianum var. brevistolon for the short-stolon variety of green & gold; or Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis for American elderberry.

Chrysogonum virginianum var. brevistolon is my favorite!

Let’s talk a minute about the species epithet. It is selected for a number of reasons: it might describe color (alba/white, rubra/red), origin or habitat (georgianum/of Georgia, occidentalis/western), form or habit (maculata/spotted, hirta/hairy, altissima/tall, arborea/tree-like). Occasionally, plants are named to honor someone and the name doesn’t offer any descriptive clue at all (michauxii, porteri, loriae).

The spelling of the species name can vary quite a bit and I believe that might be rooted more in an attempt to match Latin characteristics (male/female). As a fun exercise, I found every spelling of the epithet “of Virginia” that I could (Georgia doesn’t have as many but here’s a blog I did about it):

Claytonia virginica 

Chionanthus virginicus 

Diospyros virginiana 

Veratrum virginicum 

Botrychium virginianum 

Cirsium virginense 

Saxifraga virginiensis

Penstemon smallii, named for Mr. Small

Here is another aspect to spelling to consider. Often the ending of the species name will match the ending of the genus name: Helianthus angustifolius, but sometimes it doesn’t: Prunus angustifolia. It's a pain to have to look it up everytime when memorization fails you.

If I’m struggling to remember the spelling (the aforementioned Chickasaw plum makes me pause almost every time), I use a little trick that I created: I remember another species in the same genus—in this case I think of black cherry, Prunus serotina—and then apply the same ending (the ‘a’ in this case). So far that hasn't failed me but I'm sure there's an exception out there somewhere to trip me up.

I hope this was interesting and maybe even helpful. Here are a couple of resources that I found helpful. Now go out there and memorize the Latin name of your favorite plant.

https://awaytogarden.com/decoding-botanical-latin/

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/info/latin-plant-names.htm