• "I don’t rejoice in insects at all," Alice explained ---------"But I can tell you the names of some of them"

• "Of course they answer to their names," the Gnat remarked carelessly.

• "I never knew them to do it"• "What’s the use of their having names," the Gnat said, "if

they won’t answer to them?"• "No use to them," said Alice; "but it’s useful to the people

that name them, I suppose. If not, why do things have names at all?"

• Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

Nomenclature

• Names are enormously important in biology

• Precision and reproducibility in knowledge

• Systematic understanding

© Hagen Cartoons

Common Names - Buttonwood

Conocarpus erectus of

FL mangroves

Platanus occidentalis of

PA field and streamside

Common Names - stinkweed

Pluchea camphorata Thlaspi arvense

Names reflect classification• Nomenclature is not the same as

taxonomy, but they are inseparably intertwined.

• Scientific name is based on Binomial System of Nomenclature

• Genus + specific epithet = species name

• Polygonum perfoliatum L.

Binomial nomenclature simplifies and standardizes naming

• Historical naming (18th C) was Latin diagnosis, a descriptive “phrase name”

• Convulvulus argenteus foliis ovatis divisis basi truncatis: lacinii intermediis duplo longiorbus (Linnaeus, 1738)

Authorship

• Scientific names include the name of the publishing author. To become valid, a plant’s name and Latin diagnosis must be published.

• The “authority” provides reference to original diagnosis, prevents confusion, gives credit

• Abundantly published authors are abbreviated: L. Linnaeus; Juss. Jussieu; Michx. Michaux…

Variations on authorship

• If plant was moved later to a different genus (a taxonomic correction)…original author name is parenthesized, author who published paper designating new genus follows:

• Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirbel) Franco• New author must retain specific epithet

Variations on authorship

• If plant name was proposed or chosen by one individual, but the publication declaring and validly describing the plant by that name was authored by another, the names are both included with Latin “ex”

• Franklinia alatamaha Bartr. ex Marsh

Why and how species are named

• Names for color:• Quercus alba, Quercus rubra• Betula nigra, Piper nigrum• Passiflora caerulea• Salix lutea• Echinacea purpurea• Salvia argenta

Why and how species are named

• Names for geographic place:

• Solanum quitoense • Coffea arabica• Hevea brasiliensis• Ficus benghalensis

http://www.hear.org/starr/hiplants/images/600max/html/starr_010914_0080_ficus_benghalensis.htm

Why and how species are named

• Descriptive Names :• Leptinotarsa decemlineatalatin leptos thin, tarsus = foot part, December lined

• Acacia horrida• Oplopanax horridus • Symplocarpus foetidus• officinale, vulgare, communis• edulis, esculentum

Why and how species are named

• Honorific Names, Names for People :• Tradescantia (John Tradescant)• Brunfelsia (Otto Brunfels)• Franklinia alatamaha

(Benjamin Franklin)• Cornus nuttalli named by Audubon for Nuttall

• Pseudotsuga menziesii Douglas Fir

!%32 Otto Brunfels Book image: http://www.med.uni-jena.de/klinikmagazin/archiv/km598/km398/brunfels.jpg

Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirbel) Franco

• Named for Archibald Menzies, early British explorer who found Douglas Firs on Vancouver Island in B.C. in 1791

• David Douglas brought the species to England in 1820’s

• Important evergreen tree of the Pacific Northwest (BC, Wash. Ore.) as well as Colorado down to N.M.

• Oldest Douglas Fir about 1,300 y.o., approx 220 ft tall in B.C. (what was happening in 700 A.D.?)

• Not a fir at all (fir genus is Abies) thus another misleading common name; more related to hemlocks (genus Tsuga), hence derivation of generic name Pseudotsuga. http://oregonstate.edu/trees/con/spp/big/dfr095.gif

Franklinia alatamaha Bartr. ex Marsh

• John Bartram• The Franklinia

story

Why and how species are named

• Names for other plants ! – (leaves remind us of…)

• Platanus acerifolia• Acer pseudoplatanus• Solidago ulmifolia• Ambrosia artemisifolia• Robinia pseudoacacia

Name endings

• Latin gender M/F/N e.g. rubrum, rubra• Suffixes for name types, e.g. geographic -ensis (like quitoensis) –inica -iana• Acalypha virginica, Asarum virginicum,

Elymus virginicus• Tradescantia virginiana, Polypodium

virginianum, Carduus virginianus

Taxon names reveal rank

• Standard endings for taxa of a given rank:

-aceae Family-ales Order-idae Subclass-opsida Class-ophyta Phylum

Magnoliophyta, Magnoliopsida,Asteridae, Solanales, Solanacaeae, Solanum carolinense L.

Classification

• Many schemes could be conceived for “sorting” living species into categories.

History and Development of Classification

Modern Classification

• Kingdom• Phylum (Division)• Class• Order• Family• Genus• Specific epithet

Modern Classification -“intertaxa”

• Kingdom• Phylum• Class• Order• Family• Genus• “species”

• Subphylum

• Superclass

• Superorder

• Subfamily

• Tribe

• Subspecies

Flowering plants typically studied in groupings at family level

• A few families that have been introduced, or important families to begin to know:

• Solanaceae – Nightshade family

• Rosaceae – Rose family• Fabaceae (Leguminosae)

Bean family• Apiaceae (Umbelliferae)-

Parsley family

• Asteraceae (Compositae)- Daisy family

• Brassicacae (Cruciferae)- Cabbage family

• Poaceae (Graminae)- Grass family

• Liliaceae – Lily family• Orchidaceae - Orchids

Linnaeus – Carl von Linné• Linnaeus (1707-1778) lived at a

time of extraordinary biological discovery – beginnings of appreciation for diversity of life.

• Devised (and published) Systema Naturae (1753) to classify living things according to an ordered scheme.

Contributions of Linnaeus

• Levels of classification – taxa. “In Linnaeus's original system, genera were grouped into orders, orders into classes, and classes into kingdoms.”

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/linnaeus.html

• Binomial nomenclature to replace lengthy list of latin adjectives

• But… based on flower parts only – artificial rather than “natural” system (Class determined by stamen number, order by pistil number)

Adanson ahead of his time

• Michel Adanson (1727-1806)• Familles des Plantes (1763) • “Familles des plantes challenged Linnaeus'

essentialist system (based on flower morphology), proposing instead a system that took many features of the plant into account, including its biology. He lost the battle: he was ignored in his time because he refused to use the new binomial nomenclature” http://www.ilmyco.gen.chicago.il.us/Authors/Adanson603.html

Paris is a lovely city

Antoine de Laurent de Jussieu

• 1748-1836 – born after Linnaeus pub Sys Nat but contemporary; lived during the French Revolution (1789-1799).

http://wfscnet.tamu.edu/courses/wfsc421/lecture05/sld001.htm

Types

• In describing a new species, author designates type specimen(s) to be preserved as reference vouchers for the species.

• “Types” also exist for higher taxa in specific chouces of a contained sub-taxon, i.e. “The type of a family is a genus”

Holotype Erica from www.howe.k12.ok.us/~jimaskew/ bottax.htm

Type Method• Botanists have adopted the following method to stabilize the

determining characteristics of a species: • The author of a species must designate a certain specimen as the

Type Specimen of that species. • The Type Specimen is not necessarily the most representative of the

group, it merely best shows the element on which the name for the group was originally based.

• The Type Specimen fixes the strict concept of that species and the application of its name.

• The Type Specimen is carefully preserved in a herbarium accessible to research scientists.

• To allow for damage or destruction of the Type Specimen, a system for designating acceptable substitutes has been devised.

Taken fromJim Askew’s class at Howe High School, LeFlore Co.,Oklahoma: http://www.howe.k12.ok.us/~jimaskew/bottax.htm

Solanum bahamense L holotype

Types of types• Holotype (Type Specimen): The original specimen designated by the

author. "Types" are the most valuable of all specimens. • Syntype: One of two or more specimens used by the author of a taxon

if no holotype was designated, or one of two or more specimens designated as Types simultaneously in the original publication.

• Paratype: Any specimen, other than the holotype, referred to in the original publication of the taxon.

• Lectotype: A specimen selected by a competent person from the original material studied by the author.

• Isotype: Any specimen, other than the holotype, that duplicates the holotype. The isotype must come from the same collection, with the same locality, date, and number as the holotype.

• Neotype: A specimen selected to serve as a substitute for the holotype when all material on which the name was based is missing.

Taken from Jim Askew’s class at Howe High School, LeFlore Co.,Oklahoma: http://www.howe.k12.ok.us/~jimaskew/bottax.htm

Asimina longifolia isotype

Phylogenetics / Cladistics• Phylogenetics is the “Field of biology that

deals with the relationships between organisms. It includes the discovery of these relationships, and the study of the causes behind this pattern.”

• “Cladistics is a particular method of hypothesizing relationships among organisms.”

Definitions from UC Berkely Museum of Paleontology athttp://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/clad/clad1.html

Clades are monophyletic

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss1/phyly.html

So what? Why is phylogenetics interesting or important?

• Reveals much about biological history• Could be considered the core of

biodiversity• Allows fullest understanding of evolution,

evolutionary paths, and biological possibility