The Latin name that's given to each individual plant based on an international classification system called the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
Botanical names consist of the genus of the plant followed by the species. The first letter of the genus is capitalized and the entire botanical name is written in italics.
For example, echinacea is the genus, but there are nine different species. Two of the most popular species of echinacea in herbal medicine are angustifolia and purpurea. The botanical names are Echinacea angustifolia and Echinacea purpurea.
The purpose of assigning botanical names to plants is so that each plant has a single name that's used worldwide to identify it. Botanical names prevent people from confusing different species of plants, but also indicate that different species are related.
