Botanical names are a part of our every day life in the houseplant community. We write and say them regularly, but we don’t always (myself included) use them properly. Maybe it’s because it’s an extra step to italicize, or maybe it’s because there's still a lot of confusion for so many of us about the proper way to botanically refer to a plant. This week, I want to explore botanical names for anyone who could use a refresh, or for those who are newer to the plant community and wonder how a name like Alocasia lauterbachiana could possibly exist. To be clear up front, this is not a comprehensive guide to botanical names. I am boiling it down to the terms that we use frequently, and perhaps down the line we’ll have a second part to dig deeper. For further clarity, my own webpage doesn’t always utilize proper botanical names! I’m working to go back page by page and check.

Also, I’m not saying it’s easy or fun information, this is just meant to be educational and not another standard of plant perfection to which we hold ourselves.

Botanical names are shown in Latin. The names often describe the plant. Hoya linearis means “Hoya consisting of lines” in Latin. If you’ve seen this plant, you might agree that it does indeed consist of many lines. Those portions of botanical names that are not latin would be trademarked names coined by the growers, or species names that pay homage to the individual who discovered or identified the plant. In some cases, those who discovered the plant might name it for a friend, spouse, admired individual, or family member. Hoya darwinii, for example, is named in honor of Charles Darwin.

On the Right: Hoya linearis, or “Hoya consisting of lines.” — On the Right: *Hoya linearis*, or “Hoya consisting of lines.”

Why?

We need botanical names so there is a universal system in place, and anyone in the world can understand exactly which plant is being discussed without variations by language, region, or institution. Botanical names are applicable to Plants, Algae, and Fungi. I’m sure we all love Algae and Fungi, but we’re sticking to the plants this time. This means that the plants we’re dealing with are coming to us from the Kingdom Plantae. We, as humans, come from the Animal Kingdom, and our planty BFFs are part of the Plant Kingdom. Kingdoms are large and broad, and we narrow down further and further from there. The system would includes terms that narrow in focus as they reach the most specific manifestation of the plant. Some of these terms would be Kingdom, Phyllum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. Not all of those classifications may be used, and others might be added.

Let’s use Anthurium clarinervium as an example. This is a botanical name.

The classification looks like this, from the most brand down to the most specific descriptor:

Kingdom - Plantae

We touched on this one. Primarily we’re dealing with the plant and animal kingdoms. For plants we’ll always be dealing with the Plantae kindgdom.

Family - Araceae

This family is also known as the Aroid family. We are discussing a group that’s smaller than the entire kingdom of plants, and it’s narrowed down to plants that fall into specific common traits or characteristics that make up a family. In this case, Aroids consist of Philodendron, Syngonium, Aglaonema, Monstera, and Anthurium, among others.

Genus- Anthurium

We’ve now dropped all the other members of the Araceae family and we’ve zeroed in on all the plants that can be called Anthurium. In a botanical name, the genus will begin with a capital letter and it will be italicized.

Species- A. clarinervium

Now we are talking about a certain Anthurium. We’re specifically referring to A. clarinervium. The A. is short for Anthurium, and clarinervium begins with a lowercase letter.

Botanical name: Anthurium clarinervium

This is the proper way to refer to Anthurium clarinervium. The botanical name might be accompanied by some words or numbers that indicate when, where, and by whom the plant was collected and identified. This form of the botanical name is considered binary, meaning that it consists of two parts, the genus and the species. This is not, however, the end of the story when it comes to botanical names. For example, plants that narrow even further down in to a subspecies, which is even more specific than a species, would look like this:

Rhipsalis baccifera ssp. horrida

This means that there is more than one type of Rhipsalis baccifera, and it’s necessary to distinguish them by subspecies. See photos below to compare and contrast a Rhipsalis baccifera with a more specific variety, Rhipsalis baccifera ssp. horrida.

Front: Rhipsalis baccifera ssp. horrida — Front: *Rhipsalis baccifera ssp. horrida*

Let’s cover a few more botanical terms that you might come across.

Synonym

Synonym is used when a plant has been renamed or if there is more than one term by which it might be called. For example, Hoya longifolia and Hoya shepherdii are synonyms for one another. They refer to the same plant.

Sp. Aff.

This abbreviation refers to species affinis, or species affinity. It simply means that a species is very similar to another, but they aren’t exactly the same. Refer to the blog post on Hoya sp. aff. burtoniae to read more about this plant, which bears a strong resemblance to Hoya burtoniae.

Cultivar

A cultivar is also called a cultivated variety. Abbreviated, it’s often seen as cv.. A cultivated variety is a plant selected by growers for unique characteristics that are uncommon in the original plant. The key here is growers. These characteristics are then isolated and encouraged during propagation and growing. The growers are keeping a hawk eye on their plants, and choose unique characteristics that the plants throw that they’d like to see as a whole plant and not just a one-off. The correct way to write a cultivar is with the proper botanical name setup (italicized, genus begins with a capital letter) and then a few cultivar specific mods.

Single quotes, ‘for example’ and NOT “for example”
The name begins with a capital latter, for example ‘Chelsea’
It is not necessary to include cv. in the name of the cultivar
The cultivar name is not typically in Latin.

A physical example of a cultivar is Hoya ‘Chelsea.’ See below for an example of a classic Hoya carnosa and Hoya ‘Chelsea.’

Front: Hoya carnosa — Front: *Hoya carnosa*

Variety

A variety occurs in nature without human intervention. A cultivar is a cultivar specifically due to human intervention. If a plant naturally grows and develops characteristics different from that of its species, it is a variety. These are not to be confused with hybrids.

Hybrid

A hybrid occurs when two plants are bred and crossed to create seeds of a new plant. This can occur in the wild or with human intervention (hand pollination). Hoya ‘Mathilde’ is an example of a hybrid. The cross for the parent plants would be written Hoya carnosa x Hoya serpens. This cross also produced the sister of Hoya ‘Matilde,’ ‘Hoya ‘Chouke,’ in the same seed pod, so the cross would be written identically for both plants since they have the same parents. Hybrids that are intentionally crossed can me named and even trademarked by the grower. If the plant is developed and then trademarked, the grower then has the rights to selling and distribution of the plant, not that it means people won’t propagate the plant as they see fit.

See examples of the plants below. The two below plants were not crossed to produce my Hoya ‘Mathilde,’ they’re simply used as examples to show parent plants and offspring produced via seed.

Clone

A clone is any plant with identical DNA to the parent plant. This is most likely a cutting that has been rooted and now stands alone as a single plant. This isn’t the only type of clone, but for our most common purposes, a clone is a cutting.

The End

I know this is a lot of information, so please comment below, email me, or find me on Instagram and let me know how you feel about this blog on botanical names! I love to hear from you every week after a blog posts, mostly on Instagram, and this is a post on which I’d especially love feedback. I try not to get too nerdy, but sometimes it’s hard to find the proper balance! Let me know how I’m doing.

You can also send me your requests! If there’s a topic you’d love to learn more about, pass it over to me and I’ll do the research if it isn’t something already in my plant repertoire.

Also, it’s grow light season! You can find me today, Saturday 10/31 at 2pm, presenting on grow lights with Jade @blackplantchick. You can win a Haus grow light for attending, so head to her page to check for last minute registration info. You can also get all the info on grow lights by clicking my E-books section in the header at the top of your screen and selecting my Grow lights mini-e-book.