Plant Names: A Guide to Botanical Nomenclature

by Roger Spencer, Rob Cross

Overview

Plant Names is an invaluable guide to the use of scientific, commercial, and common names for plants and the conventions for writing them. Written by horticultural botanists at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, this book covers the naming of wild plants, plants modified by humans, why plant names change, their pronunciation and hints to help remember them, along with updated sections on trademarks and plant breeders' rights. The final section provides a detailed guide to resources useful to people using plant names.

This fourth edition is based on the recently updated International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants and the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants and makes this technical information readily understandable to a range of readers, including botanists, publishers, professional horticulturists, nursery workers, hobby gardeners and anyone interested in plant names.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781486311446
Publisher:	CSIRO Publishing
Publication date:	09/24/2020
Edition description:	4th ed.
Pages:	168
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Roger Spencer is Senior Horticultural Botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne in the Plant Identification Service. He has written many popular and scientific articles on horticultural topics and books on Elms, Grey and Silver Foliage Plants, and a recent 5-volume Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia.

Rob Cross is a horticultural botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, where he works on the conservation and horticultural development of Australian plants, and has previously worked in the landscape design, garden maintenance and nursery areas of horticulture. Rob has written scientific papers, books on Japanese flowering cherries and plant names, and contributed to other horticultural books.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
Codes of plant nomenclature

Part 1 – Wild plants
Common names
Latin names, the binomial system and plant classification
The International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants (ICN)
The botanical hierarchy
Name changes

Part 2 – Cultivated plants and cultigens
The International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants
Marketing names (trade designations)

Part 3 – Using plant names
Writing plant names
Pronunciation
Remembering names
Recommended format for nursery plants labels

Part 4 – Plant name resources
Books and websites to help with plant names
Appendix
Glossary and abbreviations
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

"Attractively laid out and clearly organized, with dozens of beautiful photographs illustrating everything from type specimens to nursery labels, this is the book to keep on your desk or side table where it can be looked into at any time."—South African Journal of Botany

From the Publisher

"[A]ttractively laid out and clearly organized with dozens of beautiful photographs, this is the book to keep on your desk."

South African Journal of Botany