26 - North Shore News — Sunday, December 26, 1999

SOMETHING thar
confuses and even.
scares gardeners is the
use of Latin plani
names.

Using common names

may have been possible
before the Age of

Exploration, but as thousands |

of new species were brought
back to Europe, the old and

lengthy descriptive names for
plants became useless.

Now we live in the Age of
Globalization and the need
for 3 consistent plant-naming
system that the whole world
understands is even more
apparent. To date, more than
6 million species of plants
have been identified.

- The man who is consid-
ered the “Father of Botany”
and the person responsible
for the modern method of
plant taxonomy (naming
plaats) is Carl Linnaeus
(1707 t0'1778).

son of 2 Swedish
vicar, Linnaeus was encour-

. aged to become a theological
student, a subject he had lit-
tlc interest or aptitude for.

- His teacher suggested he

-FIOME AND GARDEN

become a shoe maker. A local
doctor reconized Linnaeus’
early. childhood interest in
plants and encouraged him to
study medicine, which also
included botany. In those
days, doctors were expected
to prepare medicines and
potions from a wide variety
of plants.

At the age of 23, while he
was studying medicine, he
was appointed the curator of
the botanic garden at the -
University of Lund, Sweden.
A short time later he moved
to the more prestigious
University of Uppsala where
he was both a student and 2
teacher of botany. .

The Royal Society of
Science financed Linnaeus’
first expedition, a tip to
Lappland, where he colle
plants and studied natural sci-
ence,

On his second trip to
Northern Sweden veshase and
proposed to the daughter o:

a local doctor. His future

- father-in-law insisted
: Linnaeus go to Holland to

complete his medical stwdies.
= While in Holland in 1737
he published one of several

fe had brought
with him. famous
“Systema naturae” which laid
out his concept of binomial
nomenclature (two Latin
names) for each plant.

The idea was not an origi-
nal one but his ability to
organize and describe: planes
allowed him to build on
other botanists’ ideas. He was
the best and last of a long
line of botanists who had
tried to solve the naming
problem.

Publishing this paper
quickly put Linnaeus in con-
tace with the most famous
European botanists of the
day. He spent tvo more years
studying and publishing in
Holland before returning to
Sweden as a medical doctor.

He helped found the
Swedish Royal Academy (of
Nobel fame) and in -1741 was
appointed to the chair of
medicine at Uppsata
University, where he was able
tw teach botany and supervise
the botanical garden. The
King and Queen of Sweden
supported his efforts and in
1757 he was made_a noble-
man and given the name of
Carl Von Linne. This new
name has caused some confu-
sion in history books.

The binomial system, first
developed by Linnaeus, has
been modified and improved
upon over the centuries.

Today all plants are placed

in a kingdom and then subdi-

vided into a phylum, class,
order, family, genus, species
and variety. Only the last

ons are used when

naming a plant. The genus
name is capitalized and fol-
lowed by the species name in
lower case and then the van-
ety. For example, the gen
Acer (maple) is followed by
the species rebra (red} and
then the variety “Red Sunset
or Acer rubra “Red Sunset.”

Both genus and species
names are descriptive. ‘The
genus name helps relate one
plant to another and the

”

species name penerally defines

one of its characteristics or
who discovered the plant and
named it. A plant hunter may
use his own name or that of a
friend or colleague.

The binomial system has
now been expanded tu
include all life forms as well
as plants.

Initially, Linnacus and his
disciples placed great impor-
tance on the plant’s flower or
reproductive system for classi-
fying plants. As the number
and variety of plants
increased, this narrow means
of identification had to be
expanded to other character-
istics. Today, taxonomists are
continually re-classifying or
segregating plants because of
new developments in bio-
chemistry, pollen analysis,
micromorphology, anatomy
and DNA.

it is confusing when you
have just mastered the name
of a new piant and then you
find they have reclassified it
to a new genus. Further con-
fusion occurs when plants are
called by their trademark

NEWS phisto Terry Potors -

OUR system of naming plants using Latin was creat-
ed by Cari Linnaeus, an 18th. Century doctor. and

botanist. - :

names instead of their. bovani-
cal names. This may help the
grower but it doesn’t make it
any easier for the consumer.

” Like any language, plant

. Rames may scem confusing at

first. However once you are
in the habit of using them’
you will find -

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