Timeline Tuesday 1 May 1753

Events on Tuesday 1 May 1753 1

• 1753 Species Plantarum Published Founding work of modern botanical nomenclature Published on 1 May 1753, "Species Plantarum" catalogued nearly all plant species known to Europeans at the time using consistent two-part Latin names, a genus name followed by a species epithet. This binomial format proved so effective that botanists retroactively adopted 1753 as the starting point for valid plant names under the modern rules of nomenclature. The two-volume work remains one of the single most consequential publications in the history of biology.