How Are Plants Named?
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Scientific Names and Taxonomy
Queen Victoria agave (Agave victoriae-reginae) is displayed next to its plant label, which shows its common name, scientific name, native range, family, and accession number. Photo by Judi Danner. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
To facilitate communication across different regions and languages, each living thing is given a scientific name in Latin or a Latinized form. This way, scientists worldwide can be sure they are discussing the same organism. This naming tradition started when Latin was the common language used by European scientists to write about what they found, regardless of their native language.
But how do scientists pick which Latin names to use? Taxonomy is the term for the way scientists organize and name the natural world. Traditionally, scientists grouped living things based on physical features. Today, genetics, the study of how traits are passed from parent to offspring through genes, plays a major role in understanding how organisms evolved and are related, changing how we organize and classify them. Scientists use a classification system that moves from broad to specific categories. At the broadest level are kingdoms. Plants make up one kingdom (additional kingdoms include fungi, animals, and microbial groups).
This kingdom organizes plants into increasingly smaller subgroups, including families, genera, and species. The last two, genus and species, give organisms their scientific names.
Common Names
In addition to scientific names, we often give organisms common names, which are a bit like nicknames. You may have a friend who goes by a nickname, but their legal name stays the same. Common names for plants can vary by region, language, or culture.
For example, all oak trees share the same genus name: Quercus. Within that group, particular types of oaks have their own species names. The scientific name for one kind of oak is Quercus agrifolia. The Spanish call it encina, while the Tongva call it wet. Its Chumash name is kuʼw. However, it’s also known in English by its common name, coast live oak. Scientific names are especially helpful to avoid confusion when plants have more than one common name or when they don’t have a common name. Another kind of oak is Quercus engelmannii. Some people know it as the Pasadena oak or Engelmann oak.
Botanical gardens like The Huntington often display the scientific names of plants using labels so people know exactly what plant they are looking at. In addition to the plant’s scientific name, labels often include information like a plant’s common name, geographic range (meaning its native habitat), and accession number, which is the plant’s identification number, used to keep track of individual specimens in extensive collections.
Plant Label Example
Plant label for a coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia) showing the plant’s common name, scientific name, native range, family, and accession number. Photo by Victoria Gonzalez. | The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
- Scientific name: Quercus agrifolia
- Common name: coast live oak
- Native range: California
- Family: Fagaceae
- Accession number: 123556
Coauthors
Victoria Gonzalez is digital learning specialist at The Huntington.
Sandy Masuo is botanical content specialist at The Huntington.
Reviewers
Dora Dalton is a freelance writer and editor.
Kathy Musial is senior curator of living collections at The Huntington.
Sarah Thomas is school programs and partnerships manager at The Huntington.
