The purpose behind plant labels

By: Jonathan Milbrodt, Horticulturist


Like most Botanical Gardens, the horticulture staff at TBG keeps updated records of all the plants we acquire and preserve in our collections so we can accurately keep track of what we have, how many, and the exact location of everything in our 60 acre garden. This is similar to what a museum will do with their collections of art or historical artifacts. This record keeping process is what makes a Botanical Garden a museum of plants rather then just a pretty park. Our plant collections at TBG display a diverse variety of species that are suitable to grow in the Northwest Ohio region.

In recording our collections, the most visible thing we do here that visitors notice is displaying our plant labels.

The labels here at TBG show the Scientific Name of the plant species, which is in Latin and always has 2 parts with the Genus first and the Species second.

Many times you will notice a third part of the name which is the specific variety or cultivar of the species. This part is usually in English with single quote marks on each end of the word or words, meaning the plant is a cultivated variety. If it shows “var.” before this part of the name without single quote marks, that means the plant is a naturally occurring variety.

You will also see an English Common Name for the plant species on our labels.

The reason we even use the Latin Scientific Name is because many plant species have multiple Common Names in English, and sometimes different unrelated plant species share the same Common Name. Of course this may cause confusion of what the plant really is. All plants have a Scientific Name that is completely unique set by an international code, so it is the one same name no matter where in the world you go or what language you speak. That’s why it is best to know and use a plant’s Scientific Name when sharing information so it is clear what plant you are referring to, or when buying new plants or seeds so you know for sure what you are getting.

With our plant labels, TBG is a great place to become familiar or just take notes of some of these Scientific Plant Names.