Carl…

We have all encountered the often complicated Latin names of active plant ingredients used in cosmetics.

They contain two words, the first refers to the genus, the second a specific designation: the species.

If we take one of the active ingredients used in our Eye and Lip Area, the cornflower, its botanical genus is: “Centaurea” and the species “cyanus”: Centaurea cyanus…

In the large family of Centaurea genus, all are not blue. The flower of the Centaurea macrocephala, the bighead knapweed that can be found in the Caucasus, is bright yellow. In this case, the colour does not characterise the genus. Unlike the alternating leaves and flowers that grow as capitulum…

We owe the generalisation of this two-name system for plants, or binomial nomenclature, to Carl von Linné among others.

In 1753, Linné published Species Plantarum, a monumental work in two volumes where he described all plants known at the time. He applied to them the binomial nomenclature still used today. The importance of his work is considerable. He was the only botanist whose name could be abbreviated to one letter: “L.”. Returning to our cornflower, Centaurea cyanus, it is “signed”: L., 1753.

His systematic identification of the animal and plant species makes Carl von Linné one of the fathers of biodiversity.