Descriptive Botanical Names

Descriptive plant names are decreasing in importance but many are still in use, such as ''Plantae'', '' Algae '', ''Musci'', '' Fungi '', ''Embryophyta'', ''Tracheophyta'', '' Spermatophyta '', '' Gymnospermae '', '' Coniferae '', '' Coniferales '', ''Angiospermae'', ''Monocotyledones'', ''Dicotyledones''. Such descriptive names have a very long history, often preceding Linnaeus. As Latin was the universal scientific language in those days such names are in good Latin, and usually take the form of nouns in the plural.

At the rank of family

Art 18 of the ICBN allows a descriptive name, of long usage, for the following eight families. For each of these families there also exists a name based on the name of an included genus (an alternative name that is also allowed, here in parentheses) :

Special provision has been made for what might be described as one of the subunits in ''Leguminosae''. If this were more universally adopted it would help in avoiding the confusion attending the name ''Fabaceae'' (which can refer to either of two, quite differently sized, families). This subunit has two special names (in both the ranks relevant here):

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Descriptive Botanical Names