ISCM: What is science?

Tutorial: Scientific naming of plants and animals

Classification of organisms
Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, was the first scientist to develop a formal system of classifying living organisms.
Classifying living organisms helps us to get to grips with their huge variety and to understand the underlying
similarities and dissimilarities. As we gain further knowledge and understanding, our classification system will
continue to change.

The main system of classification of plants and animals is as follows:

Most inclusive Latin name

Latin name

Plantae Animalia

Spermatophyta Chordata

Dicotyledonae Mammalia

Geraniales Primata

Geraneaceae Homonidae

Pelargonium Homo

sidoides sapiens

Least inclusive
Dicotyledonae

Geraniales
Naming of organisms Geraneaceae
Non-scientists have names for animals and plants - which can vary depending upon local custom or
Pelargonium
language. For example, the largest cat found in the wild parts of Africa is called a lion in English,
sidoidesngonyama
in isiXhosa, leeu in Afrikaans and ndau in Venda. Even within a single language, some organsisms may be
referred to by several different names. For example, an aloe plant found in the eastern Cape is called both
bitteraalwyn and bergaalwyn in Afrikaans. As you can imagine, this can give rise to a lot on confusion. To
overcome any confusion, scientists have adopted a system of naming organisms such that there is ONE
name for each species in the world, and whatever your background and wherever you are, you use that
one name when speaking to scientific audiences.

Scientists throughout the world therefore use a common system for naming organisms, which is known as
the binomial nomenclature. Nomenclature refers to the ‘system of naming things’ and binomial means

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ISCM: What is science?

‘two words’. The ONE name used by scientists for each species is therefore in fact two names (a bit like us
with a first name and a surname).

The scientific names consists of two terms, the genus name and the species name. Here are some
examples:
Common English name Genus name Species name Full scientific name
lion Panthera leo Panthera leo
dog Canis familiaris Canis familiaris
spinach Spinacia oleracea Spinacia oleracea
onion Allium cepa Allium cepa

If we were to write about onions scientifically we may say the following:

The Allium cepa L. species grows best in well-drained soils. The bulb (part that grows underground)
is the most edible part of A. cepa.
Or adapted from your essay readings (Brendlar and van Wyk, 2008, p421):
Pelargonium sidoides DC. (Geraneaceae) is one of several geophytic species of the genus that are
important traditional medicines in South Africa. . . . Pappe (1857) included two species of
Pelargonium in his treatments: Pelargonium grossularioides (listed by the old name Pelargonium
anceps) and Pelargonium triste.

Task 1: Examine the above two texts and work out the conventions that need to be followed when
writing scientific names. (7 marks)

Conventions:
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Task 2: State three advantages of using scientific names for an organism. (3 marks)
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Scientific names are often descriptive and can indicate an important characteristic about an organism. For
example, you would know that the plant called Strychnos spinosa (found growing in sandy soils in the
Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Mpumalanga) would have strychnine (in its bark) as well as
spines or thorns (Figure 1). For your interest, S.spinosa has the following common names: spiny monkey
orange, green monkey orange (English) doringklapper (Afrikaans) morapa (North Sotho), mKwakwa (Swati)
nsala (Tsonga, Tswana), muramba (Venda).

Figure 1: Strychnos spinosa

fruits and spines

Notes adapted from: https://biology.tutorvista.com/organism/scientific-names-of-plants-and-animals.html

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