Historedia
EuropeEvent

Publication of Species Plantarum

When
1753
Where
Stockholm
Episodes
1

Carl Linnaeus published Species Plantarum in Stockholm on May 1, 1753. This two-volume work by Laurentius Salvius consistently applied binomial nomenclature to plant species, establishing the formal starting point for botanical naming conventions.

Episodes

  1. 1 May 1753 · StockholmPublication of Species Plantarum

    Linnaeus's Species Plantarum was published in Stockholm on May 1, 1753, by Laurentius Salvius in two volumes.

Background and detail

Publication Details. Species Plantarum was published on May 1, 1753, in Stockholm by Laurentius Salvius. The work appeared in two volumes and listed every plant species known at the time, classified into genera. It served as a foundational text for botanical classification.

Nomenclature System. The book was the first to consistently apply binomial nomenclature to a large group of organisms. It replaced cumbersome names with two-part names consisting of a genus and a specific epithet. This system established the standard for naming plants.

Content Structure. Linnaeus provided short descriptions and synonymies for each species after the specific epithet. The work contained descriptions of thousands of plant species. Genera descriptions were omitted, as they were supplied in the companion volume Genera Plantarum.

People involved

Sources

  1. Species Plantarum Wikipedia, revision of 2026-02-01

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.