Names

What's in a name? It is human nature to name things. We use names to communicate information and assign an identity to people and objects. For plants, fungi, and other organisms there are several kinds of names:

Taxon

(plural: taxa) is a general term meaning a group or rank, such as a species, a variety, a genus, a family, etc.

Scientific names

are official names that follow rules of taxonomy to uniquely identify a taxon, such as a species or family. Example: Ulmus americana and Ulmaceae.

Synonyms

are different names for the same taxon. Example: Ulmus floridana is a synonym of Ulmus americana.

Common names

are nicknames that vary between regions and languages. They follow no rules and often are not unique. Example: American elm.

Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the classification of organisms into categories based on shared characteristics. It is closely tied to nomenclature, the practice of naming things. Scientific names for plants and fungi follow the rules of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. For animals, the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is used. There is also the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria. When a new species or organism is discovered, it is named based upon the rules of these codes. Because these two sets of rules are independent there are occasionally the same names used for both animals and plants or fungi. For example, Lactarius is a genus of milk mushrooms, but Lactarius is also an economically important milkfish in the Indian Ocean.