What are the conventions for naming a plant on a label?
How to write a plant name on a label? You can choose to do whatever you want, but there is a usual way of presenting plant names on a label which I am going to cover here at a basic level.
Common names
Plants usually have a common or local name and in some cases part of the Latin name doubles as a common name. An example of a common name would be Bluebell. An example of a Latin name also used as a common name would be Delphinium.
Latin names (genus and specific name)
Latin names of plants are both a curse and a boon to plant collectors. Common names are different even from one end of the UK to the other so if you need to be precise about a plant it needs to have it’s Latin name.
For example, if you talk about Bluebells in England you will be talking about Hyacinthoides non scripta. Ask a Scot and they will think you mean Campanula rotundifolia which the English person will know as a Harebell. In New England USA they might ask if you meant Tall Bluebells or Virginia Bluebells both Mertensia species. In Australia, Bluebell refers to a roadside plant Wahlenbergia stricta.
How to use latin names
A plant labelled with its Latin name will be understandable by anyone with an interest in plants no matter where they come from or what language they speak. No-one needs to learn Latin to use these names it is just a question of learning them or looking them up.
In a book or catalogue it is normal to put a Latin name in italics. This is useful as it indicates that you have switched from English or French etc. into a different language. This allows scientists and others to spot the name of the plant quickly and easily. A label on the other hand starts with the name and needs to be readable from a distance and is often not printed in a conventional way. Therefore, for a label, italic is not necessary.
We had a look at what the Royal Horticultural Society was doing and also looked at what Kew Gardens was doing at Wakehurst Place. They do not use italics on labels, so this is what we think makes sense.
Another convention with Latin names is that the first part of the name is capitalised and the second part of the name always starts with a lowercase letter.
Variety names
The next issue is to do with variety names. If someone has gone to the trouble of breeding an improved version of a species then they are allowed to name it, perhaps after a fragrant aunt or it may be named after them. Or they can go poetical and call it after their favourite poem or song; see Rose ‘A Shropshire Lad’ or Rose ‘Blue Moon’. These names are shown in single quote marks.
Some plants have international cultivar names that indicate the breeder. ‘A Shropshire Lad’ bred by David Austin has an international name of ‘Ausled’. For marketing purposes in another country it could have a different variety name that has meaning there but the international name is a constant. For this reason some people like to include it on their rose labels. The rose ‘Blue Moon’ is ‘Mainzer Fastnacht’ in Germany where it was bred but its international name is ‘Tannacht’.
Some people like to use the Latin genus followed by the variety name for their rose and some the common name. We feel this is a matter of personal taste and after all it is only one letter that alters Rose to Rosa. There is no specific name here because most of our garden roses are bred from a range of interspecies crosses which are then cross bred again so it can only be said that they are Rosa.
Family names, genera and the changing of names
Every plant belongs to a family of plants. Our Botanical label section gives you the option of adding this to your label from an extensive list.
Just don’t get cross if a botanist somewhere has a breakthrough and realised that the plant was in the wrong family and reassigns it. They can also change the Latin name of the genus where new understanding of the family structure emerges. Usually it is the genus that is changed but sometimes the plant can get moved into an entirely different family.
Just to be clear there are three levels of scientific naming that we are dealing with on our labels. There is the plant family, the genus and the specific. So, our bluebell (English wild) is in the family Asparagaceae, it’s genus is Hyacinthoides and it’s specific name is non scripta.
Hyacinthoides non scripta has had a number of scientific names since the Binomial Classification system began several hundred years ago. It was first described in 1753 as a member of Hyacinthus genus. Fifty years later moved to the Scilla genus, then to Endymion, and finally to Hyacinthoides. The bluebell was also originally placed in the Lily or Liliaceae family.
Fortunately, after a flurry of plant name changes due to DNA analysis, things are settling down. There have however been a few controversial names changes – the RHS reclassifying the herb Rosemary as a Salvia or sage!
https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/articles/misc/rosemary-becomes-a-sage
We hope you have found this post on how to write a plant name useful.