In message . com, Rob
Hamadi writes
On Feb 25, 9:55 am, Stewart Robert Hinsley
wrote:
In message . com, Rob
Hamadi writes

How shaky would my ground be if I were to assume that, as a general
rule, the first word of the latin name IDs the plant and the second is
sort of extra information, style of thing?

Depends on what you mean by "the plant". The first word is the genus
which identifies a group of related plants, and the second word is the
specific epithet, which identifies the species, which is probably what a
botanist would identify as the plant.

I get you, as in (IIRC) cherries being Prunus whatever and apples
being a type of rose and so forth.

Not all Prunus are cherries - Prunus also includes almonds, plums,
damsons, peaches, nectarines, apricots, bullaces, sloes, cherry laurels,
etc.

Apples (like Cherries) belong to the rose family (Rosaceae), but the
term rose is usually restricted to genus Rosa, which doesn't include
apples (which are more closely related to rowans, whitebeams, pears,
hawthorns, medlars, etc). That's when rose isn't being applied to some
even more distantly related plant, such as desert rose, rock rose, sun
rose, Confederate rose, stone rose, Rose of China, Rose of Sharon.

After that it all gets more complicated -

-snip complicated stuff-

You'll get no argument from me there... ;-)

--
Rob


--
Stewart Robert Hinsley