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Taxonomy (biological naming terminology)

In ICSN, we use biological names, here laid out from broad to the narrow in the taxonomic hierarchy:

• kingdom for example, 🌳︎🌲︎🌵︎🍁︎  plant  kingdom Plantae,
• division / phylum for example, ⚘ ❀ flowering plant  division Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, plural=divisions / phyla,
• class ,
• order      for example, cashew/🌰︎ chestnut/🍊︎ citrus/🍁︎ maple  order Sapindales,
• family     for example, soapberry  family Sapindaceae,
• genus     for example, 🍁︎ maple  genus Acer, plural=genera, list of plant genera with their meanings,
• species  for example, red maple  Acer rubrum, plural=species, with its two-part "binomial" name Genus species, and
• cultivar / variety for example, Drummond's red maple  Acer rubrum 'drummondii', with its three-part "trinomial" name, composed of Genus species from immediately above, followed by a variety, subspecies, cultivar or tradename, usually:
   ◦  surrounded by 'single-quotes' (cultivar ),
   ◦  preceded by subsp. or var. (subspecies or variety), or
   ◦  followed by ® or ™ (cultivar tradename).

Tree terminology

To keep straight terminology about trees, we made this table:

Leaf terminology

When we starting writing ICSN, we used the terminology in this leaf chart,  and this article on phyllotaxis.

Then, we came across this Manual of Leaf Architecture (MLA) (useful bits).    It seemed very specific.  It used a couple terms differently than we did, terms that are used differently by different authors.  Trying to pin down the ambiguity, we found that this document is an extract of a parent doc Manual of Leaf Architecture (MLA) (full). 

Completing the survey, we decided to standardize on this MLA document's terminology.  With a few exceptions for simplicity:

If you have any thoughts on this process or list, please let us know with the button at the bottom of this page.

More Definitions and Abbreviations of Terms.