Tautonymy

Tautonymy in nomenclature refers to the genus name and species epithet being the same.

Examples

  • Natrix natrix
  • Polyporus polyporus

The first, a
snake, is ruled by the nomenclature code for animals, where this is allowed. The second, a hypothetical fungus, is ruled by the code for plants, where tautonymy is not allowed. If one transfers a species to another genus and this move creates a tautonym, one must find the next priorable name, or propose a new name. This is an example of binomial nomenclature not being stable.

It is allowed for the genus and species of a plant to mean the same, without being identical. For instance, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi is bearberry, in Greek and Latin respectively. There are also a few instances of modification of the genus name in the species, such as the fern Polypodium polypodioides, which means "a polypodium that is like a polypodium". Differences as small as a single letter are permissible, as in the Jujube shrub, Ziziphus zizyphus.

See also binomial nomenclature






Google
Home   Alphabetical Listing   Quote


This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.