Albert's Greenhouse

There are a lot of undiscovered plants out there in the big wide world. Swathes of them. It's big news when a mammal unknown to science is found. It's barely noticed when a new plant comes to light.

Somehow the sources of the plants are not tied very well to the describers and namers of the plants. The guy who pulls something out of the jungle, propagates and eventually sells it may be far removed from the guy who writes and publishes a formal description.

We have a lot of names that are wrong or incomplete.

The incomplete ones, when done well, can be a bit confusing. There's usually some abbreviation in the name like "sp. aff."

Here's a run-down of some of the ones I see on a daily basis:

cv. = "cultivar" ; a specific selection. Might be a species or might not be, but it identifies a particular set of genes specially bred or selected. A cultivar may be registered or may be trademarked, and it refers to a specific clone of a plant.

aff. = "affinis" ; same base as our word "affinity". Means that the plant might be a new species, or its identity hasn't been completely determined, but it's like another species. So Alocasia aff. nebula would be an Alocasia that looks like A. nebula. It might even be Alocasia nebula, but it's either a little different or nobody with enough experience has had the time to make a positive identification.

cf. = "confer" ; Latin for "compare", this is similar to aff. in that when an identification is uncertain it means the plant looks at least somewhat like a particular other species.

sp. = "species" ; this is often used when a plant's genus has been determined, but not its species. Anthurium sp. would be something that looks like it's an Anthurium, but hasn't been indentified further. This is also combined with some of the other abbreviations above to further indicate the unidentified nature of the plant, or followed by a location name or collection number. It is not used for hybrids.

sp. nov. = "species nova" ; meaning a new species, as yet undescribed. This is used for plants where the new name has not been officially published, but the namer is pretty certain that the plant has never been published before. It is not used for hybrids.

ssp. = "subspecies" ; just like it says, some plant classifications are divided down below the species level. There's Biarum tenuifolium ssp. tenuifolium and also several others including Biarum tenuifolium ssp. galianii. They may be the same species, but they're from distinct populations.

subsp. = see ssp.

var. = "variety" ; very similar to the subspecies designation, this designates a particular type or strain of the species. For instance, there's Anchomanes difformis and Anchomanes difformis var. welwitschii. Both are the same species, but var. welwitschii is a special form of the plant.

f. = "forma" ; somewhat similar to cv, it's preferentially used to indicate a specific form occuring in nature rather than manmade.

x = "cross" ; this is an indication of hybrid parentage of the plant.

• The x may indicate the parentage of the plant, like "Anthurium dressleri x radicans". The female parent is traditionally listed first, but sometimes it's just in alphabetical order.
• The x may indicate the given name of a cross like "Nepenthes x hookeriana", which is a cross between Nepenthes ampullaria and Nepenthes rafflesiana. Not that you'd know that from the name.

hort. = "horticultural" ; this indicates that the name is a a common designation, and not a properly derived scientific name. It also hints that the origins of the plant are somewhat unknown.


There's a good and very readable page on plant naming at the Victorian Carnivorous Plant Society webpage. Carnivorous plant names are pretty messed up and complicated, so they have good reason to be concerned.