The Grange Small Blue Arrow Flora Small Blue Arrow Plant Classes

Plant Classification

There are over five million different kinds of living things on our planet. All known organisms are given special taxonomic names, and placed into groups to help us understand how living things are related. These groups are:

Group Example
Kingdom Plant
Division Anthophyta (Angiosperms, flowering plants)
Class Dicotolydons (seed with two leaf shoots)
Order Fabales (legumes)
Family Miimosaceae (shrubs or trees, flowers as spike or ball)
Genus Acacia (more than 10 stamens)
Species Melanoxylon (tree, flowers cream balls, leaves broad stems)

Binomial System

The usual, or common, names we use or give a plant may vary from person to person, or place to place. It is therefore important to have a system where we can all be sure we know what plant it is we are talking about.
For example:
The tree known as a Swamp Gum in Tasmania, is not the same tree as the Swamp Gum found in The Grange.
All over the world, no matter what language is spoken, biologists use formal Latin names in a binomial system.

This is why plants are known by a two termed name, and to help identify this special system, the words are always written in italics or underlined. The first part of the name is the generic name, or genus the plant belongs to. The second is the species name, which may sometimes have a variety name attached to it.

For example:
The Swamp Gum in The Grange is Eucalyptus ovata.
The Swamp Gum in Tasmania is Eucalyptus regnans.