As I stated above the species name is an adjective, meaning it always gives important information about a plant. It can tell us the color of the plant, as in Betula lutea is yellow birch, or Betula alba which is white birch, or Quercus rubra is red oak.
Sometimes the species name tells us it is a creeping or an erect plant, as a Epigaea repens is a trailing arbutus. Other times we learn geographical information about where the plants orgin is, such as Anemone virginiana is a Virginia anemone or Taxus canadensis is the Canada yew. Another interesting item is the words Macro or micro, as a species name macrophylla means it has large leaves, while a species called microphylla would have small leaves. The word (phyllus) means leaf.
Most of the time when Latin names are printed in a book they are show in italics. It is just a standby mostly always used when names or phrases are written in a language other than our own. So they are printed in italics or underlined, when typewritten or handwritten. The generic name is written first, then the species name, and the last cultivar (cv.) name. The generic name begins with a capital letter and the species name with a small letter. The cultivar name is preceeded by the letters cv or enclosed within single quotes, with the first letter of the cultivar name capitalized.
The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, which is a set of rules to ensure that every different species has a different binomial name and that the scientific name assigned to that plant is the oldest binomial name ever used for that plant. The scientists who identify and classify plants are called "taxonomists."
Taxonomy Chart: hierarchy of specification, is as follows:
Kingdom-Plant
Division or Phylum- Spermatophyta (seed plants)
Class-- Angiospermae (seeds in fruit)
Order--Acerales
Family--Aceraceae
Genus--Acer
Species--rubrum
Variety or cultivar--var 'October Glory'
The above chart represents different types of trees as in these examples: The generic name for maple is (Acer), which is sometimes abbreviated to (A). The red maple may be expressed as (A. rubrum,) and the Japanese maple (A. palmatum.) The cultivar refers to a specific plant, as in (Pinus strobus 'pendula,') weeping white pine or (Fagus sylvatica 'Atropurpurea,') copper beech, whose leaves are deep maroon color.
In plant families related genera with similar flower structures are generally grouped together into major units, as the rose family. It is known as Rosaceae, and consists of several genera, such as (prunus) plum, (Fragaria) strawberry, (Rubus) bramble, and (Malus) apple.
