2. Systematics of Living Organisms - part 04

Nomenclature :

1.Vernacular / Local names / Common names:

Widely distributed organisms have a large number of common names.
Pansy (Viola tricolor L.) grown in most European and American gardens has about 50 common English names.
In a multilingual country like India, almost all useful plants have local names which differ from language to language and even from dialect to dialect.
As in Ayurveda, mango (Mangifera indica L.) is known by over 50 different names, all in the Sanskrit language.
Hence the common names obviously have limited usage and for universal applications, a unique name for a particular individual is very much essential.

2. Scientific Names :

To overcome the difficulties raised by common names, scientist have given scientific names to all the known organisms.
These are systematic, thus provide means for international communication.
Initially the polynomial system was used but Carl Linnaeus used binomial system of nomenclature.
He introduced this system in his book ‘‘Species Plantarum’’ published in 1753.
International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) has been set up to confirm the scientific names.
Before 2011, the code which was set up to confirm the scientific names was ICBN means International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
Recently XIX International Botanical Congress (IBC) was held in Shenzhen, China in July 2017. This code is also called "Shenzhen code".
So the old code ICBN has been changed to ICNAFP means "International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi and Plants". This code was published on 26th June 2018.
According to this system the scientific name of sunflower is Helianthusannus.
In the above Helianthus indicates name of the genus (generic name) and second word annus denotes name of the species.
The Binomial Nomenclature system follows certain rules.

Name of organism is composed of two Latin / Greek words.
Generic name is a simple noun. It should come first and begin with capital letter.
Specific name is the descriptive adjective which should come later and begin with small letter.
Scientific names must be underlined separately if hand written and must be printed in italics.
The generic and specific name should not have less than three letters and more than thirteen letters.
Usually the name of the author who names a plant or animal is also written in full or abbreviated form after scientific name.
e.g. Mangifera indica L. Where L stands for Linnaeus.

know the scientists

Carl Linnaeus classified living organisms in two kingdoms based on mode of nutrition, whether they are migratory, sedentary, etc.
But this broad classification as Kingdom Plantae and Kingdom Animalia was found inadequate.
It could not classify the organisms that show characters of both the Kingdoms for ex. Bacteria, Fungi, Euglena etc.
Hence to avoid confusion scientist R.H. Whittaker (1969) proposed Five Kingdom system of classification.
This system shows the Phylogenetic relationship between the organisms. The five kingdoms are.

Yogy's biology