Succulents 101: What's in a name?

My posts sometimes assume a fairly advanced level of knowledge. Many of you have that, but others might feel a bit left out. To remedy that, I decided to do a series of more basic posts. Hopefully they’ll be useful for readers who are new to succulents without boring folks who are already familiar with the topic discussed.

In this installment of Succulents 101, I’m giving you a brief overview of how plants are named.

Naming plants can be a prickly affair

Botanical names are the formal names used to classify and identify plants. They follow a standardized system called binomial nomenclature, developed by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778).

Carl Linnaeus in 1775

Here are the key concepts:

Binomial structure

Botanical names consist of two parts:

– Genus: The first word, always capitalized, indicates the genus, i.e. the group of closely related species.

– Species: The second word, written in lowercase, indicates the individual species within the genus.

Example: Agave americana

Italicization

Botanical names are written in italics (or underlined if handwritten).

Taxonomic hierarchy

Botanical names are part of a broader classification system, including family, order, class, and kingdom. Cacti, for example, are classified as follows:

Kingdom:  Plantae (plants)

Phylum:    Tracheophyta (vascular plants)

Division:     Anthophyta  (flowering plants)   

Class:             Magnoliopsida (dicots, i.e. flowering plants with two seed leaves)

Order: Caryophyllales (carnation order of flowering plants with dicots; yes, cacti are distantly related to carnations!)

Family: Cactaceae (cacti)

Uniqueness and universality

Each plant species has a unique botanical name, used worldwide regardless of language. Using botanical names eliminates confusion caused by imprecise common names (for example, the common name “hens and chicks” can refer to any number of echeverias or sempervivums).

Latin origin

Botanical names are traditionally of Latin origin because Latin was the universal language of science into the 20th century. In reality, many plant names have Greek roots. Essentially, botanical nomenclature uses a combination of Latin and Greek words.

Naming rules

The rules and recommentations governing the scientific naming given to algae, fungi, and plants are laid out in the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICNafp) published by the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT). Curious minds can access the current version (2018) of the ICNafp here.

More on species names

Species names can describe characteristics or features of the plant (such as appearance, geographic origin, or habitat) or honor a person (often a scientist, botanist, or discoverer). Here are some examples:

Plant appearance

• Agave bovicornuta: “bovicornuta” means “cow’s horn,” referring to the teeth bending backward in opposing fashion like the horns of a bull.
• Aloe ferox: “ferox” means “fierce,” referring to the teeth on the leaves.
• Echeveria agavoides: “agavoides” means “resembling an agave,” referring to the overall look.
• Echeveria elegans: “elegans” means “handsome,” referring to the overall appearance.
• Sedum dasyphyllum: “dasyphyllum” means “hairy leaves.”

Echeveria agavoides

Geographic origin

• Agave americana: “americana” refers to the American continent.
• Aloe africana: “africana” refers to the African continent.
• Echinocereus chisosensis: “chisoensis” refers to the Chisos Mountains in western Texas.
• Manfreda virginica: “virginica” refers to the U.S. state of Virginia.
• Pachypodium namaquanum: “namaquanum” refers to Namaqualand, an arid region of South Africa and Namibia.

Agave americana

Specific habitat

• Agave cremnophila: “cremnophila” means “cliff-loving.”
• Aloe petricola: “petricola” means “living on rocks.”
• Cochemiea maritima: “maritima” means “growing near the ocean.”
• Sedum alpestre: “alpestre” means “living in high mountains.”
• Sempervivum calcareum: “calcareum” means “growing on limestone.”

Aloe petricola

Honoring a person

• Agave victoriae-reginae: honors Queen Victoria.
• Dudleya hendrixii: honors the late guitarist Jimi Hendrix.
• Opuntia engelmannii: honors German-American botanist George Engelmann.
• Weberbauerocereus johnsonii: the genus name honors German botanist August Weberbauer, the species name California nurseryman Harry Johnson who discovered this cactus on his second South American expedition in 1951.
• Pachycereus pringlei: honors American botanist Cyrus Pringle. (You get the drift – lots of botanists have plants named after them. Naming a plant after yourself is a no-no, so you have to suck up to others cultivate good professional relationships in hopes somebody else will do it.)

Queen Victoria, Jimi Hendrix, George Engelmann

Celebrities fare well in the naming department:

• President Obama not only has a genus of extinct lizards named after him (Obamadon), but also a lichen (Caloplaca obamae), a leafhopper (Osbornellus obamai), a horsehair worm (Paragordius obamai), a fish (Etheostoma obama), and a bunch of other animals, for a total of at least 14 species.
• Lichens are popular targets. How about Hypotrachyna opra, named after Oprah Winfrey? Or Sticta gretae, named after Greta Thunberg? Environmental activist Greta Thurnberg, bless her heart, has also been immemorialized in a rain frog (Pristimantis gretathunbergae), a beetle (Nelloptodes gretae), a snail (Craspedotropis gretathunbergae), a spider (Chibchea thunbergae), and a whole genus of daddy longlegs (Thunberga).
• Lady Gaga is another celebrity who has an entire genus named after her, a genus of lipferns called Gaga.
• I wonder how writer Amy Tan feels about having a leech named in her honor (Chtonobdella tanae)?
• Singer Sting fares better with a frog named Hyla stingi.
• Speaking of frogs: Actor Seth MacFarlane, scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Titanic and Avatar director James Cameron also have had frogs named in their honor (Hyloscirtus sethmacfarlanei, Indirana tysoni, Pristimantis jamescameroni).
• Flys are popular subjects, too. Just ask Prince (Agromyza princei), Carmen Electra (Carmenelectra, a genus of extinct flies), Bill Gates (Eristalis gatesi), RuPaul (Opaluma rupaul), Beyoncé (Scaptia beyonceae), and rock group Iron Maiden (Xestochironomus virgoferreae; the species name is Latin for the group’s name).
• (Over)actor Leonardio diCaprio has a tree and a snake named after him (Anguiculus dicaprioi and Uvariopsis dicaprio).
• Me, my last name lives on forever in Arisaema bockii (a cobra lily), Clea bockii (a freshwater snail), Salix bockii (a small willow), and Smila bockii (a climbing vine). Of course these organisms weren’t named after myself, but after others carrying my illustrious name. Needless to say that if I ever had a plant named after myself, I’d want it to be an agave.

Crazy scientific names

For fun, here are some scientific names that would be a challenge to even the nimblest tongue. Memorize any of them and you’ll be the life of the next party!

• Ornithogalum adseptentrionesvergentulum: The species name is an impressive 26 characters in length, but its meaning is quite simple: “inclined towards the north” because in habitat, the leaves of this South African bulb lean towards the north where the equator is located.
• Pseudogynoxys chenopodioides: This is the common Mexican flame vine (I have one in my garden). Its old name, Senecio confusus, was the very definition of simplicity, but for some reason, taxonomists felt compelled to change it to something virtually impossible to pronounce.
• Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides: OK, this is a fly, not a plant, but it’s an example of an insanely complicated name that will trip up any human tongue.
• But it gets worse! How about Myxococcus llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochensis? This is the longest scientific name for any organism, a bacterium in this case. It’s named after the location where it was discovered, a place in Wales called Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. I’m not making this up! Check it out on Wikipedia. The place name means “The church of St. Mary at the pool of the white hazels near the fierce whirlpool and the church of St. Tysilio of the red cave.” There’s one place name in the world that’s even longer, Taumata­whakatangihanga­koauau­o­tamatea­turi­pukaka­piki­maunga­horo­nuku­pokai­whenua­ki­tana­tahu (a hill in New Zealand), but it doesn’t have anything named after it.

This post vividly illustrates how prone I am to getting sucked into the bottomless pit that is Wikipedia. I started out wanting to writing a short post on botanical names for succulents, and I ended up on a 1,000 ft. hill in New Zealand with an 85-character name.

To see more Succulents 101 posts, click here.

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