Families Matter

You probably remember from introductory biology course, that the official way of naming a species is the binomial ("two-name") system. Each species name is composed of the genus name and the specific epithet.   For example, Quercus alba is the name for the white oak. Quercus is the genus, which contains a number of other species of oaks, and alba is the specific epithet that refers exclusively to this one species. In almost all scientific communication and labeling practices, however, a third id