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A botanical name is a formal name conforming to the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN). The purpose of such a formal name is to have a single name worldwide for a particular plant or plant group. For example the botanical name Bellis perennis is used worldwide for a plant species that goes by hundreds of common names in hundreds of languages (English names for this plant species include common daisy, daisy, lawn daisy, etc)
The usefulness of botanical names is limited by the fact that taxonomic groups are not fixed in size; a taxon may have a varying circumscription. One particular botanical name may refer to a group that is small according to some people and big according to others. This depends on the taxonomic viewpoint or taxonomic system. The traditional view of the family Malvaceae sets the size of the family at over a thousand species, but in the modern approach it counts over four thousand species. The botanical name itself is fixed by a type, the size and placement of the taxon it applies to is set by a taxonomist. Some botanical names refer to groups that are very stable (for example Equisetaceae, Magnoliaceae) while other names are notorious in that differing taxonomic systems include greatly differing circumscriptions, so a careful check is needed (for example Scrophulariaceae, Urticaceae).
Depending on rank, botanical names may be in one part (genus and above), two parts (species and above, but below the rank of genus) or three parts (below the rank of species):
- in one part
- Plantae (the plants)
- Marchantiophyta (the liverworts)
- Magnoliopsida (class including the family Magnoliaceae)
- Liliidae (subclass including the family Liliaceae)
- Pinophyta (the conifers)
- Fagaceae (the beech family)
- Betula (the birch genus)
- in two parts
- Acacia subg. Phyllodineae (the wattles)
- Gossypium barbadense (Egyptian cotton)
- in three parts
- Theobroma cacao subsp. cacao (criollo chocolate)
A name in three parts, i.e. the name of an infraspecific taxon (below the rank of species), needs a connecting term to indicate rank. In the Theobroma example above, this is "subsp." (for subspecies). In botany there are several ranks below that of species (in zoology there is only one such rank, subspecies, so that this "connecting term" is unnecessary there). A name of a "subdivison of a genus" also needs a connecting term (in the Acacia example above, this is "subg.", subgenus). Such a connecting term is not part of the name itself.
A taxon may be indicated by a listing in more than three parts: "Saxifraga aizoon var. aizoon subvar. brevifolia f. multicaulis subf. surculosa Engl. & Irmsch." but this is a classification, not a formal botanical name. The botanical name is Saxifraga aizoon subf. surculosa Engl. & Irmsch. (ICBN Art 24: Ex 1)
Botanical names at the rank of genus and below are printed in italics when it is possible to do so (underlined in some older references, especially those produced on a typewriter). The example set by the ICBN is to italicize all botanical names at all ranks (e.g., family), but only a small minority of botanical publications have adopted this convention, generally reserving italics for names at the rank of genus and below.
A botanical name is one of several kinds of "scientific names". Other scientific names are zoological, bacterial or viral names.
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