Perpetuated in plant names outstanding figure of the Planet

Abstract

Aims. The review studies are motivated by the need to study the evolution of the world botanical community's perception of prominent figures of the planet and to find out the alternatives of the grounds for perpetuating the memory of these figures in the scientific names of plants. Methods. Open scientific sources were used to clarify the cognitive and onomasiology grounds for the motivation of scientific plant names. The information obtained was studied by the methods of theoretical analysis, systematization, comparison, and generalization used in research on the etymology of plant names, and the authors also used their methodological developments in writing review articles. Results. The evolution of the motivation and practice of using the names of famous people in plant names from Linnaeus's times to the present has been analyzed based on literary sources. The reasons for naming botanical genera and species in honor of people unrelated to biological sciences are discussed, and warnings are expressed against the use of eponyms formed on subjective or random motives. Conclusions. Based on the analysis of the motivation for the formation of scientific names of plants from the Latinized names of famous people, which sometimes acquire elements of emotionally colored primitivism, it is proposed to improve the rules of botanical nomenclature with the regulation of the use of names of contemporary people unrelated to biological science.