El Mirador

Scientific Name of Plants

The following is a list of the common plant names cross referenced to the scientific name of plants. The list represents some of the most popular varieties of perennial plants.

The scientific names of plants is based on taxonomy, the science of plant classification. Each name has two parts, the genus and the specie. This is referred to as the binomial (two names)system founded by Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist. Some species will have a third name, called the subspecies, variety, or form.

You can think of taxonomy as the plant directory of all species. The plant kingdom has over 350,000 species, thus the necessity of an ordered classification system.