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These terms are more than names, because the rules of the
nomenclature allow for the summarisation of a complex
description of the characteristics of the object, that the community
of specialists of a certain activity consider to be determinants for
its classification, in a noun.
Botanical nomenclature
In 1753, the Swedish botanist Linneo published his word
Species plantarum, in which he laid the foundations of the current
botanical nomenclature. Linneo perceives the plant kingdom as a
big family in which all the plants are relatives.
The grade of kinship between two certain plants is observed
in the morphological similarity or difference of their organs
(flowers, leaves, buds…). In this way, in the classification of
plants, a hierarchy or taxonomy is established in relation to the
grade of kinship. The fundamental element of this taxonomy, the
group of plants with the same characteristics, is called “species”.
Each species is named with a pair of words (binomial
nomenclature), the first of them is the name of the “genus” to
which the species belongs. Genus is the level (taxon) immediately
above species in the hierarchy. The second word is used to specify
the content of the word used to designate the genus, it is the
information related to the species. The binomial made up of a
generic element (related to the genus) and a specific one (species)
is the scientific name of the plant. This expression is completed
with the name of its author (whole or abbreviated). The names of
the taxa that are hierarchically above a genus are generated on the
basis of the name of the genus, adding several suffixes to the root
(a certain suffix points out that a name is the one of a specific
taxon). Names of taxa below species are indicated with
abbreviations of the type of taxon.
The generation of names of genera and species is a creative
process that depends on the botanist who is the author of the name,
although the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature
establishes several recommendations.

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