The genus and species names often tell something about the plant. They can describe the appearance of the plant, reflect the common name of the plant, indicate a chemical present in the plant, tell how the plant tastes or smells, or describe how the plant grows. The genus or species name can honor someone, a botanist, a person in power, someone historically prominent. The name can reflect the country or origin of a plant. The jaborandi tree Pilocarpus jaborandi has a genus name which indicates that the alkaloid pilocarpine can be extracted from the plant.
Plant classification can be painstakingly difficult.
A case in point is the cinchona tree , a plant instrumental in world history as a result of its alkaloid derivative, quinine, which helped to reduce the incidence of the terrible disease malaria. The cinchona tree, with its many species and hybrids and varieties within species, has resisted absolute classification. It's ambivalent ways have left botanists puzzled as to the exact number of species which exist. Drawing of herbarium specimen of Cinchona officinalis, the source of quinine. Photo by Steven R. King, 1996.