Green Fun Articles

Naming Trees: Common and Scientific Ways

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Humans as a creature with intellect and an inquisitive mind have a penchant to give names to all sorts of natural and cultural objects. For a new-born baby, the name given by parents often denotes an expectation or a wish. For natural objects, primitive humans gave them names initially for utilitarian purpose, probably to identify them as friends (useful or beneficial) or foes (harmful or obnoxious), to help to eke out a living from the harsh and changeable environment. Upon satisfying our basic needs, we could explore other 'neutral' objects and name them as well, some of which would probably ignite our innate curiosity to know them better for purposes other than the practical ones. Once a name was given to natural object, such as a tree, it can be surmised that the new epithet would begin to circulate within a human group. Contacts between human groups would spread the use of the name whereupon it would gradually gain popularity and acceptance. Migration of adventurous people to far away places would spread the name farther afield. In the ideal world filled by one people using one language, given the fullness of time the name would eventually become universal. In the real world, due to physical and cultural barriers, we tend to give different names to the same thing.

Would you like to find out the origin of the scientific and common names of this tree, Bauhinia blakeana (Hong Kong Orchid Tree)?

Names given by common people to trees are common names; those given after scientific studies by scientists are scientific names. Different people in different places at different times tend to give different common names in different languages to the same tree. This could occur even for the same people using the same language dwelling in adjacent villages. On the other hand, the same common name sometimes refers to different species by different people. To avoid ambiguities and facilitate scientific communications, the botanists have adopted an international code to give a unique and universal scientific name to every plant. Latin was used, as it is a dead language with unchanging grammatical rules, and was the language of science and intellectuals in the eighteenth century when modern classification of living things was initiated.

Let us explain using Chinese Banyan (Ficus microcarpa). 'Chinese Banyan' is the English common name; it is also known as Small-leaved Banyan. By convention, the initial letter of every word in a common name is capitalized. There are common names in Chinese and in every language where the tree occurs naturally in Southeast Asia, Indian Subcontinent, and Eastern Australia.

Each plant is identified by one scientific name which is composed of two parts known as Latin binomials. The first part (Ficus) is the genus (plural, genera) name which must begin with a capital letter. The second part (microcarpa) is the species (plural, same spelling) epithet which begins with a small letter, and must be used only in conjunction with its genus name. Genus and species are lower categories in the hierarchical system of plant classification. A genus can contain one to many species; used alone the genus name refers to all constituent species. Scientific names are printed in italics and underlined in written or typed manuscripts.

The generic name Ficus originated from the Latin word for the fig, that is the unique clustered arrangement of many minute flowers (and hence fruits set after pollination) of this tree group. The specific name microcarpa means small-sized fruits. Ficus is a large genus with over 800 species of different forms, including creepers, climbers, shrubs, small and large trees.

by Prof. C.Y. Jim
Green Fun Committee and The University of Hong Kong

February 2002