Question

The botanical name of groundnut is
A. Cicerarietnum
B. Glycine max
C. Arachis Hypogaea
D. Lens esculentus

Answer 1

Hint: Scientific names are based on two Latin words. Every species consists of a name consisting of two words: the first word gives the genus, and the second word consists of a specific epithet, and the two words together uniquely identifies the species.

Complete Answer:
- The classification of organisms is taxonomy. Taxonomy of plants and animals is hierarchically organized, from the broadest phylum level to the species. Professional plant taxonomists assign each plant a specific scientific name.
- The Swedish botanist Linnaeus invented the naming system in the 1700's. It is based on the principle of taxonomy, and employs a hierarchical system called binomial nomenclature.
- The botanical name or scientific name of a plant is the common accepted name of a plant that includes the genus and the species. It conforms to the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants.
- The scientific names are given in Latin. The need for a botanical or scientific name is to avoid confusion as plants can be named by the common names of a particular region. Having a universally accepted botanical name avoids these problems of confusion during classification.

Now, from the given options,
1) Cicerarietnum is the scientific name of chickpea. The name chickpea comes from the Latin word cicer, which refers to the leguminous family of plants, Fabaceae.
2) Glycine max commonly refers to soybean belonging to the family of Fabaceae. The word glycine indicates the genus of the plant.
3) Arachis Hypogaea Commonly refers to groundnut, a plant of the legume family of Fabaceae. Groundnut belongs to the genus Arachis, which includes flowering plant species of the pea family native to South America. The Latin term of hypogaea means 'under the earth', and hence the name of the species.
4) The scientific name for lentil is Lens esculentus. Lens is a genus of the legume family mainly known for its edible seeds, such as lentils.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘C’ .

Note: The first word (genus) is capitalised in scientific names and the subsequent words (species, subspecies, etc.) are not capitalised. A species' full name is given as two words: its genus (always capitalised) followed by the epithet.