Succulents 101: What's in a name?
My posts sometimes assume a fairly advanced level of knowledge. Many of you have that, but others might feel a bit left out. To remedy that, I decided to do a series of more basic posts. Hopefully they’ll be useful for readers who are new to succulents without boring folks who are already familiar with the topic discussed. In this installment of Succulents 101, I’m giving you a brief overview of how plants are named. Naming plants can be a prickly affair Botanical names are the formal names used to classify and identify plants. They follow a standardized system called binomial nomenclature , developed by Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778). Carl Linnaeus in 1775 Here are the key concepts: Binomial structure Botanical names consist of two parts: – Genus: The first word, always capitalized, indicates the genus, i.e. the group of closely related species. – Species: The second word, written in lowercase, indicates the individual species within the genus. Example: Agave a...