1. Plant Classification
Plants are classified based on their similarities of features such as:
Flower structure (reproductive parts ) and fruits
Leaf structures
Life cycles
Native habitats (climate, water, sun, etc)

2. Family: Aceraceae (Maple family)
Genus : Acer (Maple)
species : rubrum (red)
variety : var. rubrum
(Naturally occurring variation)
Cultivar : ‘Autumn Flame’
(Selected and grown by horticulturists)

3. Scientific or Latin manes of plants are universal
Scientific or Latin manes of plants are universal. All over the world they are called the same.
Binomial nomenclature:
Two part naming system
Carl Linnaeus:
Swedish botanist (aka Father of Botany) that helped develop the naming system

4. The Genus… is always first is always capitalized
needs to be in italics or underlined
plants in the same genus are similar
Analogy would be – it is like a noun

5. The species… is always second is written in lower case letters
needs to be in italics or underlined
a more specific type of a given plant
Plants of the same species can reproduce freely with each other.
Analogy is that is like an adjective describing which type

6. The Variety or Cultivar…
Not always present
If the species needs to be sub-divided it may have this additional part.
It is added because it differs from straight species with one or more traits

7. Style to standout in text
When writing scientific names the proper style is to underline or italicize the genus and species names. It allows the reader to see that it is a plant name.
Acer rubrum – italic shown
Acer rubrum – underlined shown

8. Style for additional parts
Cultivars are capitalized and in single quotes.
Varieties are not capitalized and preceded by the abbreviation var.
Examples: Acer rubrum var. alba
Acer rubrum ‘Autumn Flame’

9. Peach

10. Grouped by Life Cycle – Annual
Completes its life cycle on one year. Goes from seed to seed and is done. The original plant dies at the end of the season and all that is left to have future plants is the seed. Therefore, annual plants tend to have lots of blooms to produce lots of seeds. This allows for the species to survive have new plants (from seed) the next year.

14. Life Cycle - Perennial
Grows from seed and then re-grows from the same plant year after year as well as producing seed. Since it does not rely solely on seeds to survive, the plants blooms during a limited and specific bloom time.

16. Life Cycle
Biennials:
Takes two years to go from seed to seed, ex. carrots

18. Leaf Cycle - Deciduous
Sheds leaves in the fall, gets new leaves each year

19. Leaf Cycle - Evergreen
Loses and replaces some leaves/needles all the time, but keeps leaves/ needles all year long

20. Stem Type
Herbaceous:
Soft tissue stem – if you stepped on it, it would squish and be juicy

21. Stem Type
Woody
Cells/ tissue become more wood-like. It’s not soft, harder stems and with bark such as with a tree or shrub.

22. Hardiness: Ability of a plant to withstand harsh climates (hardiness zones, IL = Zone 5)

23. Tender Plant:
A plant that is more sensitive to extreme temperatures and may not survive winters in Illinois

24. Dormant Phase:
Phase during growing cycle when the plant goes ‘to sleep’ due to extreme cold and lack of water

25. Vegetative Phase:
Phase during growing cycle when the plant begins to produce new leaves, gains height; grows bigger and greener

26. Reproductive Phase:
Phase during growing cycle that produces flowers or fruits with seeds