Besides, the Latin names are often beautiful and roll off the tongue in a pleasant way.
For each species, field guides generally give both the Latin name and one or more “common names”—that is, the names people have given to plants over the centuries in their native language—which may be different from place to place for the same plant. For instance, a variety of species that pop up quickly in burned-over land may be called fireweed. In addition, a single plant may have a variety of names. Queen Anne’s lace and wild carrot refer to the same species. The Latin names, assigned by scientists, are (usually) more specific, with one species per name, enabling us to communicate accurately about the plants we have discovered. (On the other hand, scientists have occasionally disagreed about how to classify a species, so one species may go by two or more names, or may shift from one name to another as botanists learn more about the species. These cases, however, are relatively rare.)
A Latin binomial has two parts, genus and species. The genus refers to a grouping of plants that are similar in structure. The genus name always comes first and is capitalized. The species name follows and is not capitalized. In a text, they are written in italics. When a writer refers to a genus more than once, its first initial may be used in later references. Thus, the Quercus genus refers to all species of oak trees. White oak is called Quercus alba, and red oak is Quercus rubra, or I could write Q. rubra. When referring to various oaks, I could also call them Quercus spp., meaning “oak species plural”.
Scientists further group plants into a larger category, the family, which may include a number of genera (plural of genus) sharing similar characteristics. The family also has a Latin name. For example, the rose family, Rosaceae, includes plants of many genera, including Rosa (roses), Rubus (raspberries, blackberries, etc.), Fragaria (strawberries), Potentilla (cinquefoils), and others.
Learning a few features of plant families can make identification much easier. Botany in a Day (HOPS Press, 1996) by Thomas J. Elpel is an excellent book for learning family characteristics and using them for identification.
