Linnaean Plant Names Based on India - Its Land Life, Languages and Legends

Carl Linnaeus gave names to 7700 species of plants, including several hundred plants from India. He based some generic and several hundred specific epithets on India, its states, towns, rivers, languages, edible, medicinal and other properties of plants, as also legends about faith and traditions. The paper gives about 150 examples of such generic or pg specific epithets. An analysis of present status of genera of flowering plants in India and the genera founded by Linnaeus shows that over 25 percent Linnaean genera occur here. It is remarkable that out of some 3500 notable useful plants in India, again about 25 percent are Linnaean binomials. Such rich representation of Linnaean genera and binomials within one country may be an unmatched figure. Considering phytogeographic aspect, some Linnaean species are even endemic and several are now even believed to be RET taxa. A closer study of etymology of names listedin Appendix may result in establishing ischolar_mains of some more names in Indian languages and life.