> BACK TO CONTENTS PAGE LessoN 1 INTRODUCTION - The WHY Suggested Tasks: ▼ AND How OF PlaNT NaMes Throughout this course you will be provided with suggested tasks and reading Plants are critical to human existence. They provide much of our food, to aid with your understanding. fuel, building materials, compounds for pharmaceuticals, and they These will appear in the right hand column. Remember: satisfy many other needs. They are an integral part of our environment these tasks are optional. The where they provide ecosystem services such as clean water and more you complete, the more filtered air, as well as a food source for pollinating insects and birds you will learn, but in order to which, in turn, ensure the provision of our crops. Plants also have a complete the course in 20 profound effect on both our physical and psychological wellbeing. hours you will need to manage your time well. We suggest you spend about 10 minutes on each task you attempt, and no more than 20 minutes. LearN MORE ››› Suggested Tasks Before progressing; spend 5 mins to quickly write a list of reasons why you think it is important to be able to English Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) Because this is the only lavender species with identify plants accurately. very low levels of camphor oil; it is the only species able to be used to flavour foods. Get Put the list to one site. the identification of lavender wrong, and you may be ingesting unsafe levels of camphor oil. You will refer to it again later. Why Name Plants? a dramatic and potentially fatal effect on us or anyone who we advise. For The immense significance of plants example, “People have died after in our lives has led to a desire to mistaking deadly nightshade fruits, for understand plants. Knowing shared the similar, but non-fatal, black-currants.” characteristics of a plant group, allows us to predict traits of related and even Accurate plant identification is a unknown plants. Mankind has had skill which should be an essential to rely on plants for survival. In fact, requirement for anyone working with around one third or more of all plants plants and especially in horticulture. in cultivation contain toxic chemicals. Taxonomy is the term used to describe If we were to incorrectly identify and the practice and science of naming name plants we may use these plants and classifying any organisms, and in inappropriately, and that could have our case plants. It relies on accurate page 6 > BACK TO CONTENTS PAGE descriptions and rules of nomenclature distinction between types of horticulture to facilitate identification. To attempt is ornamental vs. edible. Within this LearN MORE ››› to select, grow, and use plants in any grouping though, are many subtypes context without taxonomic skill is at of horticulture, such as ornamental Suggested Tasks best foolhardy, and at worst it can be horticulture, amenity horticulture, outright dangerous. arboriculture, floriculture, and more. Make a list of 5 plants that are poisonous. For each The necessity of understanding correct It’s also important to draw a distinction plant, note down things like plant identification, however, goes far between horticulture, professional what it is used for, they type beyond recognising poisonous or toxic gardening, and gardening. Horticulture of poison, the effects of the plants. Plants are a vital part of societal is a science. It uses research-based poison, how to avoid it etc. infrastructure, with uses ranging from methodology to improve plant growth, Spend up to 15 minutes on the home gardening and landscaping health, propagation techniques, and this task. through to coastal stabilisation, carbon more. Professional gardening is the sequestration, therapeutic use, and professional care of gardens, public If need be, search books more. In accurately classifying and spaces, and other areas. While many or the internet, or have a recognising plants, horticulturalists, professional gardeners are also discussion with a horticulturist agriculturalists, gardeners, and other horticulturalists, their primary activities to compile this list. professionals can work together to better differ: professional gardeners are in everything from cityscapes to food the business of caring for, supervising, production. In short, plant taxonomy is a and improving their environments. Both necessary real-world skill. professions require skill and hard work. There are also economic reasons Horticulture and professional gardening for being able to identify plants. The are also distinct from gardening or home development of new plant cultivars gardening. Home gardening is the care can be time-consuming and costly, of a garden for pleasure or domestic but it is very important to commercial use (such as a vegetable patch, or horticulture in order to improve ornamentals for pleasure). It is a hobby continually the cultivars available in as opposed to a profession. terms of productivity and quality. Anyone who devotes significant resources to developing a new cultivar needs to be able to establish and prove their commercial rights to that plant in order to obtain fair and profitable gain from their investment. Systems for establishing such rights exist in most developed countries. It is also important to note that horticulture is a vast and diverse scientific field. Even if you don’t work Cydonia oblonga has the common as a horticulturalist, it’s important to name Quince, but so does the understand there are different types genus Chaenomeles. of horticulture. The biggest modern page 7 > BACK TO CONTENTS PAGE Scientific Vs. can therefore be understood equally by anyone, anywhere, regardless of Vernacular Names their native language. The Latin name A vernacular name is a common or ensures that people are referring to the local name given to plants. These names exact same plant. are widely used amongst gardeners and non-horticulturists. There are advantages to these vernacular names. For example, they are in the local language and thus easier to remember. They are also often descriptive with the description indicating a use or danger. However, there are also drawbacks with common names. They can be very localised and the same plant can have more than one common name for example, the White Waterlily (Nymphaea alba) has many other common names, such as European White Waterlily, Waterlily, and White Lotus. Further confusion is created when Chaenomeles species are commonly the same common name is applied to called Flowering Quinces. So different plants. For example, Nymphaea are Cydonias. Both are in the lotus is also called White Lotus and Rosaceae family. White Waterlily, along with other names like Egyptian Lotus, Egyptian Waterlily and White Egyptian Lotus. Another History example is the common name Quince which is used for both Cydonia oblonga To gain a solid grounding in plant and Chaenomeles species. naming, a little historical background information is helpful. Some common names are the same as the Latin name. For example, plants John Ray in the genus Euphorbia are often referred to by gardeners simply as John Ray (also spelled Wray) was an euphorbias, although they can also be English naturalist who lived between called spurges. Likewise, species in 1627 and 1705. He was one of the the genus Rhododendron are called most important figures in the early rhododendrons, but some of them are development of plant taxonomy. In called azaleas even though they are 1660, he published a catalogue of in the genus Rhododendron! Extreme plants which were growing around confusion can result from the fact that Cambridge in England where he “fritillary” is a common name for both studied his Bachelor’s degree. Over the a bulbous plant and a butterfly. decades that followed he explored plant life throughout other parts of the UK, Scientific names on the other hand are and he continued publishing important all written in the Latin language. They taxonomic works. His most important page 8 > BACK TO CONTENTS PAGE long-term legacy was to establish the importance of distinguishing plants at a LearN MORE ››› species level and using every part of a plant when grouping them, and not just Suggested Tasks relying on one, such as leaf shape or flower colour. For each of the following plant categories, find one species. Linnaeus Type your chosen species into the search engine and Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778), who was look up images. View the a Swedish botanist and zoologist, is different images to gain an widely regarded as the most significant Fritillary is a common name used for appreciation of variation figure in establishing the scientific the plant genus (Fritillaria) and also for a within the same species. system of taxonomy. type of butterfly. ■ Grass Binomials Uniformity ■ Climber Linnaeus achieved his standing largely by formalising the practice of binomial It wasn’t until 1867 at the inaugural ■ Hedge naming of plants and animals (where bi ‘International Botanical Congress’ means two, and nomial means name). that the first set of rules underpinning ■ Shrub That is, he used the genus together plant names was officially adopted by with the species name to identify an the botanical world as an international ■ Fruit tree organism with “two names” e.g. Quercus scientific standard. robur (English Oak) or Rhododendron Spend about 10 minutes on ponticum is the rhododendron from the Deficiencies in this original code led to this task. Pontic Mountains in Turkey. the establishment of a number of other sets of rules. A compromise between His work “Systema Naturae” was first the existing codes was adopted in published in 1735 as a 12 page book 1930 and published as the 3rd Edition and was developed and expanded of the International Rules of Botanical over more than 2 decades until the Nomenclature. More recent editions are 10th edition in 1758 which covered basically modifications of this code. some 7,700 species of plants and 4,400 species of animals.