General Science Quiz: Scientific Names of Plants and Animals

The Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus introduced the two part naming of organisms in Systema Naturae and applied it to the plant kingdom in Species Plantarum, and because he also built the ranked system of classification he is called the father of taxonomy.

The mango belongs to the genus Mangifera and the species epithet indica marks its Indian origin; it is also the national fruit of India, which is why this name appears in both science and static general knowledge papers.

Panthera tigris is the tiger, the national animal of India, and the Bengal tiger found in the country is its subspecies Panthera tigris tigris, a three part name that illustrates trinomial nomenclature.

Rice is Oryza sativa, a member of the grass family, and the epithet sativa, meaning cultivated or sown, marks it as a crop raised by farmers rather than a wild species.

The Indian peafowl, declared the national bird of India, is Pavo cristatus, the epithet cristatus referring to the crest on its head, and it is protected under the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972.

In a binomial name the first word is the genus and is written with a capital initial letter, while the second word is the species epithet and is written entirely in small letters; both are italicised in print and underlined separately in handwriting.

Neem is Azadirachta indica, a tree valued in Indian medicine for its leaves, bark and oil, and it is remembered in current affairs as well because a European patent on a neem based fungicide was revoked after India challenged it.

Bombyx mori is the mulberry silkworm, the insect reared in sericulture, whose larva spins the cocoon from which mulberry silk is reeled, and the word mori refers to the mulberry on whose leaves it feeds.

Turmeric is Curcuma longa, a rhizome of the ginger family whose yellow colour comes from curcumin, and it is well known in the intellectual property story in which a United States patent on the use of turmeric for wound healing was revoked after India produced evidence of traditional knowledge.

The lotus, declared the national flower of India, is Nelumbo nucifera, an aquatic plant rooted in the mud of ponds and tanks with leaves and flowers held above the water, and it carries a long place in Indian art and religion.

The potato is Solanum tuberosum, and the epithet tuberosum points to the tuber, a swollen underground stem rather than a root, which is the part eaten; the plant belongs to the nightshade family and reached India through the Portuguese.