Taxonomy - Discoverer

[Fiona]

What are the rules regarding the discoverer's name when naming the plant?

[WhiteRabbit]

I don't know what type of guidelines there may be for naming newly discovered species. I have read about newly discovered, or newly recognized, animal species being named by the discoverer, sometimes a bit humorously

[Subrosa]

The person who taxonomically describes the species gets the right to name it.

[PaphMadMan]

It is common to honor someone who discovers a species when the species is named, or a patron or mentor, or your uncle Fred. The particulars of valid publication and format of naming must be followed, but almost any name that hasn't already been used in a similar combination can be chosen - person, place, description, pet hamster, favorite football team...

[Fiona]

Thank you for the info.

[tropterrarium]

There is a fine distinction between "discoverer", i.e., the person who finds it, and the nomenclatural author who formally describe it. Sometimes, the discoverer recognizes that this is something different, but does not have the inclination, expertise, time, … to write the formal description, so passes the specimen on to some other person. Sometimes, the discoverer also describes his/her own discovery. In other cases the discoverer/collector has no idea what was collected, and only later someone recognizes it and describes it. There are all sorts of permutations.

If the two are not the same, it is quite common that the describer names the species after the discoverer, but not necessarily so. It is considered very bad form to name a species after yourself.

Please also note the distinction of nomenclature, i.e. the rules associated with naming organisms, and taxonomy, which is putting those names into a hierarchical framework. The introduction of a species is a nomenclatural act, but the transfer of one species to a different genus is a taxonomic decision. Also, while we are at it, please notice that it is Linnean binominal nomenclature (NOT binomial, which is a statistical number distribution); even wikipedia has it wrong. The word is derived from bi- for two, and nomen, nominis, Latin for names. So two names, genus and species.

In the 100 taxa I've introduced, I've seen every of those permutations. I've named species after the discoverer, after the collector, after friends, some funny ones, some descriptive, some based on location. Just had my 7th species named after me :-) [plus one genus].

[OkiFred]

Actually, there is a "strict" code with specific rules when naming a species.
Because I am a newbie it seems I am not allowed to post URL but if you google "International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Melbourne Code)" you should get straight on it.

I am more familiar with the code for animals, in which it is forbidden to name a species after yourself. Also, from memory, the species name should be more than 1 letter (for example there is a wasp named Aha ha).

But basically although there are lots of rules, most of them are just basic common sense and there is a lot of freedom to name new species. As mentioned above, often species are named after the discoverer/collector of the species if he is not involved in the description, or after a colleague that advanced the knowledge on this group).

The most common issue is people not researching properly the past literature and redescribing the same species. And of course taxonomists like to argue between mergers (those who will group many "variants" under one same species) and splitters (those who will consider all these variants as distinct species), this is quite an endless philosophical debate...

[Subrosa]

"Taxonomy is the diaper used to organize the mess of evolution into discrete packages." M. Sandel