Descriptive botanical names

From Freepedia

Descriptive botanical names: Art 16 of the ICBN rules that names above the rank of family may be either descriptive or based on the name of an included genus. The latter leads to names such as Magnoliophyta and Magnoliopsida.

Descriptive plant names are decreasing in importance but many are still in use, such as Plantae, Algae, Musci, Fungi, Embryophyta, Tracheophyta, Spermatophyta, Gymnospermae, Coniferae, 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 descriptive names for eight families (alternative names tjat are also allowed in parentheses) :

Compositae = "composites" (Asteraceae)

Cruciferae = "cross-bearers" (Brassicaceae)

Gramineae = "grasses" (Poaceae)

Guttiferae = "latex-carriers" (Clusiaceae)

Labiatae = "lipped ones" (Lamiaceae)

Leguminosae = "legumes" (Fabaceae)

Palmae = "palms" (Areceae)

Umbelliferae = "parasol-bearers" (Apiaceae)

Note that the descriptive names are nouns in the plural while the alternative names (based on the name of a genus) are adjectives in the plural (but treated as nouns). The exceptions is the adjective

Papilionaceae = butterfly-like (Fabaceae)

and Papilionoideae (Faboideae)