Re: Ref: Database Classification Help Needed
From: GWhite & LRader <bentfork@navix.net>
Anner Whitehead wrote:
> Family is that larger botanical category which contains all Genera, including
> the Genus Iris. There are numerous subcategories between the genus Iris and
> the Iris species, including those important ones not on your chart which
> break the Genus down into bearded and beardless, for instance. The name of
> each Species is a binomial and consists of two words: first is the name of
> the Genus, then there comes a term called the Specific Ephithet, like
> "siberica" in "Iris siberica". Then there may be some subdivisions below the
> species like "forms." which are written after the specific ephithet.
>
>
Botanically, the species name is usually followed by a designation for the author
of the species and is very important in establishing the exact species being
discussed. This is because there may be many synonyms or duplicate names for a
single species. Therefore, "Iris pseudacorus L." is considered the correct full
name of the species. The L. in this case refers to Carl von Linnaeus, who named
this particular species. Linnaeus, of course, is considered the father of modern
botany and was the person responsible for standardizing the binomial (genus and
species) concept used in classification of all living organisms. Because of
Linnaeus' importance in the history of botany, a simple L. is usually used to
denote his name when listing a species that he named (although, occasionally
Linn. is also used as in Brian Matthew's book "The Iris" or his name can be
written out completely). Botanically, it is a well established practice to give
the name of the author or authors of the specific epithet after the name of the
species. The author name is also very useful in a historical sense. The author
dates the name of the species; for example, in this case of "I. pseudacorus L.",
its obvious that this species has been known by this name for a very long time,
since Linnaeus lived between 1707-1778. On the other hand, "Iris giganticaerulea
Small." refers to an iris that has been known to science (at least by this name)
for a much shorter period of time. This is immediately known if you are aware
that the "Small." at the end of this species name refers to John Kunkel Small who
was a well known botanist at the New York Botanical Garden in the early part of
this century who worked primarily in the southeastern United States and in fact
authored the massive work "Manual of the Southeastern Flora" published in 1933..
The presence of the author "may" also place the species in its native range. In
this case, "Iris giganticaereula Small." would indicate that it "might" be native
somewhere in the southeastern U.S., and in fact this species is one of the
Louisiana irises native to areas of the U.S. gulf coast. (One cannot always
count on using the author of the specific epithet to place the plant in a
particular part of the world, though, since many well-known botanists travelled
extensively around the world or in the case of Linnaeus, plants were taken to him
in Sweden where he named them. He sent botanists around the world to collect
plants and bring them back to him. Then he would name them, sometimes bestowing
generic names on plants in honor of the collector. This is why "Kalmia latifolia
L.", the mountain laurel, has the genus name Kalmia. It was named by Linnaeus
for Pehr Kalm, a plant collector in the 18th century who brought specimens of
this plant genus back to Sweden for study.) Of course, this is all
over-simplified, since species names and author designations in botanical
nomenclature can get much more involved than this. Well, this discourse has
gotten way beyond the classification needed for a workable database for your own
collection of plants. But from a botanical (I don't know about horticultural)
standpoint, the author designation is usually present after the species name and
we seem to leave it off most of the time. Also, the author name lends a great
deal of interesting historical information to the species, especially if you are
into botanical trivia.
Gary White,
Lincoln, Nebraska, dredging up some old botanical training from the distant
past.
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