The Fungi Name Game Instructions

FF17

The Fungi Name Game

Instructions

The Fungi Name Game

The Fungi Name Game

The main difference is that scientific names are part of a standard worldwide classification system of all living things. So there are internationally-agreed rules to producing scientific names. Also, scientific names are generally in Latin (a few are based on the Greek language), which means that whatever the native language of the scientists, they always use the same name for the same organism. Scientific names consist of two words: the name of the genus followed by a name for the species; this is called the binomial nomenclature. The genus name is rather like your family name and the species name is rather like your first name.

The genus name (which is always capitalized) and the species name are usually printed in italics, like this: Homo sapiens. When handwritten they should be underlined.

When used with a common name, the scientific name usually follows in parentheses, for example, “…the house sparrow (Passer domesticus) is an endangered species…” The scientific name should generally be written in full when it is first used or when several species from the same genus are being listed or discussed in the same report. After that, it may be abbreviated by just using an initial (and full stop) to stand for the genus. For example the bacterium Escherichia coli is often referred to as E. coli, and Tyrannosaurus rex as T. rex. The abbreviation “sp.” is used when the actual specific name is not known: for example Homo sp. denotes “a species of the genus Homo.” Similarly, the abbreviation “spp.” (which is plural) indicates “several nameless species” (you may not want to name them, maybe because the point you are making applies to all species in that genus, or you may not know the names but want to make a general point about organisms of that sort).

Genus names are nouns that can come from anywhere. For example, oak is always Quercus, the beech tree is always Fagus, the pine tree is always Pinus, and these names are used because they are the classical Latin names that were used in ancient Rome. Other names are made up to be descriptive of the organism (like Helianthus, which literally means sun-flower and is a combination of two Greek words – Helios was the ancient Greek god of the sun and anth(us) means flower), or to commemorate some famous person (like Eugenia which was named for Prince Eugene of Savoy, who was a patron of botany and horticulture), while other names come from other languages (like Narcissus (daffodil) and Anemone (anemone) that come from ancient Greek).

Species names are often descriptive (like deliciosa for delicious, foetida for foul smelling, squamosa for having scales, sapiens for intelligent, annuus for annual, and so on).

Now what does that fungus name mean...?

Latin names can often be a stumbling block for beginners in all aspects of biology including mycology, they seem so daunting, so... so long! But once you understand that the name (derived from Latin or Greek) contains information about the fungus - often describing a key physical feature or commemorating a person’s name - then it can be fascinating to find out the origin (etymology) of the name.

So here are the meanings of some fungal names:

Amanita inopinata: Amanita - probably from Mt Amanus in Cilicia; inopinata = unexpected.

Sarcodon imbricatus, S. squamosus: Sarcodon - Sarco = flesh, don = tooth; imbricatus = covered with tiles; squamosus = scaly.

Lentaria delicata: Lentaria - Lentus = pliant; delicata = tender, delicate.

Cytidia salicina: Cytidia - from the Greek for a hollow vessel; salicina - pertaining to a willow.

Boletus fragrans: Boletus - from the Greek for a clod (the shape?); fragrans = scented.

Cystoderma fallax, C. terrei: Cystoderma - Cysto = cell, derma = skin; fallax = deceptive; terrei = in honour of Mr Michael Terrey.

Tephrocybe ellisii: Tephrocybe - Tephro = ash-coloured, - cybe - from the Greek for head; ellisii – in honour of Ted Ellis, the distinguished Norfolk naturalist.

Hebeloma crustuliniforme, H. helodes, H. sinapizans, H. incarnatulum: Hebeloma - Greek for youth and fringe, presumably because some species are veiled or fringed at the cap margin; crustuliniforme - crustulum = a small cake, forma = shape; helodes - from the Greek for a marsh; sinapizans - from the Greek for mustard; incarnatulum = small and flesh coloured.
[By Geoffrey Kibby, originally published in 2000 in the magazine Field Mycology volume 1, p. 48.]
Useful references online
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_classification

http://botanicallatin.org/

http://atshq.org/articles/beechwp1.html

http://atshq.org/articles/beechwp2.html