Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi Inc.
Botanical Names
 
Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi Inc.
Birds
Trees
Other Wildlife
Botanical Naming
Tree Classifications

Botanical Names

Botanical plant names follow an International code that groups botanically similar plants in a systematic way based on the structure of their flowers.  The system allows for four levels of naming; Family, Genus, Species, Cultivar.

The last three levels are used in situations such as plant labels. 

A user friendly useful way of relating to Botanical naming is to think of the Genus as a surname and the species name as the Christian name.

For example in the name  Metrosideros excelsa (Pohutakawa)

Metrosideros is the Genus (surname) and excelsa is the species (christian name)

Metrosideros excelsa is Pohutakawa  or NZ Christmas Tree

Metrosideros umbellata is South Island rata

Metrosideros robusta is Northern rata

All scientific names for fauna and flora are either displayed in italics or underlined. The genus is capitalised and the rest of the scientific name is in lower case.

 


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