Notes on Taxonomy of Trees – “Tree Species Taxonomy” by Steve Nix

Web link: https://www.thoughtco.com/tree-species-taxonomy-1342627

Tree species and their names are a product of a two-part plant naming system that was introduced and promoted by Carolus Linnaeus in 1753.

The problem before the use of this taxonomic Linnaean tree classification system was the confusion surrounding the use, or misuse, of common names. ……
(American) Sweetgum, for example, the scientific name - Liquidambar styraciflua, has several common names including redgum, sapgum, starleaf-gum, gum maple, alligator-wood, and bilsted.

Linnaeus' grand achievement was the development of what is now called "binomial nomenclature" - a formal system of naming species of living things, including trees, by giving each tree a name composed of two parts called the GENUS and the SPECIES. These names are based on never-to-change Latin words. So Latin terms, when broken into their respective tree genus and species, are called a tree's scientific name. When using that special name, a tree can be identified by botanists and foresters around the world and in any language.

What does "genus" of tree mean? Genus [plural: Genera] refers to the lowest classification of a tree before determining the related species. Trees of the genus have the same basic flower structure and may resemble other genus members in outward appearance. Tree members within a genus can still vary significantly in leaf shape, style of fruit, the color of bark and tree form.

Trees of the same species have the same characteristics of bark, leaf, flower, and seed and present the same general appearance. The word species is both singular and plural.

The Hawthorn tree, genus Crataegus, leads the tree genera with the longest list of species - 165. Crataegus is also the most complicated tree to identify down to the species level.

The oak tree or genus Quercus is the most common forest tree with the greatest number of species. Oaks have some 60 related species and are native to nearly every state or province in North America.

Posted on 26 August, 2020 06:11 by lunababy22 lunababy22

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