Scientific (= Latin) Plant Names

The binary nomenclature used by Carl von Linné in the 18th century to establish a structured order in the worldwide botanical diversity has remained the basis of any scientific nomenclature in botany up to the present day. Since Linné, the name of a species has always consisted of two words: the generic name and the specific epithet. In our data-base we follow these basic principles.The only exception being in the naming of our picture-data where we had to find an agreement with the 31-sign-convention of international computer language.
Unfortunately Linné’s nomenclature has had to undergo various changes in the course of centuries; - the binary nomenclature is always orientated to the latest standard of scientific research. Lately new insights in molecular biology for example have led to an immense restructuring. Thus it can sometimes happen that all members of a genus are regrouped and find themselves under a new generic name (as happened recently to the genus of Lychnis which is now completely regrouped under the genre of Silene). With an outdated generic name you would not be successful in an up to date data-base.
In order to provide you with the best possible success in your research we have listed all scientific plant names (past and present) in our data-base and they all may be used as entries in our search engine to lead you to the referring picture-material. Thus you do not have to worry about the complex scientific background of botanical research and its changes.

The rules of botanical nomenclature are formulated in the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN), in the current version of the “Saint Louis Code” dating from the year 2000, respectively in the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP). The plant names of Wisskirchen, respectively Zander, on which we orientate our main entries, follow these rules. Thus the entries in our thumbnail representation will always indicate to you the latest scientific name of a plant as well as the commonly agreed upon name in the respective spoken language (German, English or French). These valid names together with the Latin name of the plant family are what you will also find in the description in our IPTC-Headers when you order our picture-material.

As for our recent research in the fields of chinese medical plants our nomenclature is based on the updated entries of the Flora of China (www.eFloras.org) as far as our own entries of species have been considered in this work of progress.

Despite these international regulations different rules may still be valid in pharmaceutical biology or in homeopathy. As a picture agency we feel obliged to serve all different groups of interest and therefore we have included these differing scientific names in the lists of our search engine as well.
In short: all scientific botanical names, no matter whether they are out-dated or current, are helpful for your picture research in our search engine. This is also valid for botanical drug-descriptions no matter if they are used in herbal therapies, homeopathy, Bach-therapy or otherwise. At present a total of nearly 9.000 scientific terms will help you in our search-engine to find the plants we have pictured.

We are happy to present a rich choice of botanical studies to a broad circle of an increasingly interested public and we will be thankful for any kind of feed-back which helps us to improve our offer or the service-functions of our search-engine.

to Index of Scientific Plant Names >