Fancy gladiolus are products of hybridization.

Botanical nomenclature has gotten sloppy. So has breeding. Hybrids of different species are now common. Their botanical names often lack proper species designation. Instead, their names include only their genus names with their variety or cultivar names. This can seem simpler. However, it complicates the simplicity of binomial botanical nomenclature.

Interspecific hybrids involved different species of the same genus. Therefore, any genus name is the same as that of both parents. An “X” precedes its species name to indicate it as an interspecific hybrid. Its species name is as new and unique as the new hybrid. Any cultivar or variety name follows its species name in single quotes. it is all quite sensible.

Intergeneric hybrids involved different genera. Therefore, an “X” precedes a genus name of an intergeneric hybrid to designate it as such. Its entire name is as new and unique as the hybrid. Like for all botanical names, both its genus and species names are italicized. This designates them as ‘Latin’ names. Variety and cultivar names lack such italicization.

Many hybrids are naturally sterile. Most that can produce viable seed are not true to type. In other words, their progeny is very different from them, and commonly of inferior quality. Most hybrids are therefore cultivars, or cultivated varieties. They are reliant on unnatural cultivation for perpetuation. However, some naturally perpetuate vegetatively, like canna.

Tree ivy, X Fatshedera lizei, is an example of an intergeneric hybrid. The “X” in its name precedes its genus name. London plane, Platanus X acerifolia, is an interspecific hybrid. The “X” precedes its species name. Platanus X acerifolia ‘Liberty’ is a cultivar of London plane. Its species name remains, which is proper with botanical nomenclature of hybrids.

Rhododendron and rose hybrids violate nomenclature rules because of their breeding. It is too extensive for their species to be identifiable. For them, the abbreviation “spp.” may substitute for a species name. It is for “species pluralis”, which means “multiple species”. Although it is Latin, it is not italicized. Nor are their more important cultivar names after it.

10 thoughts on “Hybrids Of The Botanical Nature”

  1. You’re absolutely right about this. I know one of the genuses that has gotten ridiculous is heuchera. It is so crossed over and inbred that, almost like roses, they now just call plants by a single name.

    that’s all lovely except that there a 4 distinct strains of heuchera. If you happen to know that one or the other will grow better for you, theoretically you should be able to get those. But no!

    I have stopped growing them. Life is too short to waste money on sloppy breeding.

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    1. Yes; besides, the classics and straight species are better and more sustainable. So many modern hybrids are a flash in the pan. They perform well for a season or two, but then, because of their genetic weaknesses, they fizzle out or revert to something stronger. ‘Yellow Wave’ New Zealand flax is an appealing cultivar that I would not mind growing in my own home garden, but in the real World, so-called ‘gardeners’ do not know to remove the mutant or sport growth, with is greener and less pendulous, and quickly displaces the cultivar growth.

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      1. Ah yes, the problem of reversion. I see it all the time in the variegated euonymus here. People don’t know to cut out the dark “reverted” growth and the next thing you know, their whole shrub is solid green.

        It’s a wonder anyone gardens at all, really, with all the crazy things that happen!

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      2. Some who seem to garden do not actually garden. They purchase plants that are already performing well, add them to their landscapes, and then replace them when they no longer perform, like cut flowers with roots. It would not be so insulting if it were not done in the name of sustainability.

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      3. Yes, that’s actually what is happening–you have described it perfectly!

        But doing it in the name of sustainability–ugh! What’s sustainable about killing plants right and left?

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