What is the meaning of L in scientific name Quisqualis Indica L?

Answer 1

Since we now frequently interact with people all over the globe, using a myriad of languages, a single, agreed upon name for an organism is a great advantage. Thus the success of the Linnaean binomial system. A Latin binomial name (the "scientific name") is italicized or underlined, the genus is capitalized and the specific epithet is usually not capitalized. However, the specific epithet may be capitalizedif it is, derived from a person's name (e.g., Spiraea douglasii or Spiraea Douglasii - after David Douglas), or from a vernacular name (e.g., Picea omorika or Picea Omorika - the Balkan name for spruce), or from a generic name (e.g., Picea abies or Picea Abies - where Abiesis the genus name of Fir). The tree commonly known as Sugar Maple, has the scientific name Acer saccharum, but is should be written as: Acer saccharum or Acer saccharum, However, sometime you might see it written as: Acer saccharum Marsh. or Acer saccharum Marsh. The abbreviated name following the plant name (i.e., Marsh.) is the name of the "authority" or "author", the individual who first named the plant "scientifically", in this case Humphrey Marshall. Similarly, the scientific name of the white oak is written as Quercus alba L. here the the letter "L" is used to identify Linnaeus as the authority. In most nursery and landscaping literature the authority name does not accompany the scientific name.