what are the different parts of the scientific name
Scientific names. At the simplest level of scientific classification, each plant has a name made up of two parts, a generic (or genus) name and a specific name or epithet. Together, these two names are referred to as a binomial. A generic name is a âcollective nameâ for a group of plants. It indicates a grouping of organisms that all share a suite of similar characters. Ideally these should all have evolved from one common ancestor. The specific name, allows us to distinguish between different organisms within a genus.
The first part of the binomial, the genus name, is always written with an initial capital letter. In current usage, the second part is never written with an initial capital. Older sources, particularly botanical works published before the 1950s, use a different convention.