Super noob question what does spp means

[8145]

Hi guys this is err... embarrassing but what does spp means ? As in lets say for the sake of having an example Papaver spp...

[shortly]

multiple species

[8145]

multiple species

 

You legend !

[Halcyon Daze]

I think it is followed by a full stop eg ssp.

sp. means one (singular) species

correct me if I'm wrong

[space cadet swami]

Ok... I'm gonna go out on a limb & expose my blondness here, but I thought ssp. meant ...sub species..?

[klip247]

Im pretty sure it means sub species....

[LokStok]

sp. species singular

spp. species plural (more than one)

[Jox]

Your right spacey & klip about ssp. but the question was about spp. which refers to all of the species in a genus.

Edited September 18, 2012 by Jox

[Foo]

Question was less noob then you thought hey op?

[WoodDragon]

As others have said it simply means more than one species. It doesn't have to mean all the species in a genus, although in context it might be used to refer to such.

Oh, and please, can everyone pronounce it as species, and not shpecies or speshies or (shudder) shpeshies. It's a specificity thing... or do I mean shpecificity, or shpeshifishity, or...

Edited September 18, 2012 by WoodDragon

[qualia]

shpeshies

looool

[quarterflesh]

SluShPuppies

[whitewind]

sub-species = subsp. or ssp.

[tarenna]

Your right spacey & klip about ssp. but the question was about spp. which refers to all of the species in a genus.

 

spp. refers to multiple species in a genus. NOT all species in a genus.

[8145]

Question was less noob then you thought hey op?

 

Wow that's a compliment

Cheers guys

[planthelper]

check out the pinned thread here, post #142, made by indigo sunrise, it explains everything!!

specialy, that it's, Trichocereus pachanoi, not Trichocereus Pachanoi.....even more correct would be using italics Trichocereus pachanoi.

http://www.shaman-au...pic=8656&st=125

Edited September 19, 2012 by planthelper

[Jox]

My apologies I thought it was referring to all species in a genus.

jox

Edited September 19, 2012 by Jox

[whitewind]

Wikipedia:

Abbreviated names

Books and articles sometimes intentionally do not identify species fully and use the abbreviation "sp." in the singular or "spp." in the plural in place of the specific epithet: for example, Canis sp. This commonly occurs in the following types of situations:

• The authors are confident that some individuals belong to a particular genus but are not sure to which exact species they belong.
  

 

• The authors use "spp." as a short way of saying that something applies to many species within a genus, but do not wish to say that it applies to all species within that genus. If scientists mean that something applies to all species within a genus, they use the genus name without the specific epithet.
  

 

In books and articles, genus and species names are usually printed in italics. Abbreviations such as "sp.", "spp.", "subsp.", etc. should not be italicized

[CβL]

cv. - cultivar (can be a clone, or a distinctive phenotype that breeds true from seed - this specfication usually refers to something that has been bred or kept alive by humans)

var. - variety http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variety_%28botany%29 A variety might be like an island species of a plant that is almost identical, except the leaves are 3x bigger. It's the same type of occurence as a cultivar (except the clone), and except that it occured naturally.

http://nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.asp?ID=1486

http://nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.asp?ID=2

My example was these trees, I thought they were varieties, but they're actually subspecies - so I'm also confused. =D

[Halcyon Daze]

Lol

ssp. =subspecies

spp. = multiple species

sp. = species (singular)

I never realised how easily they could be confused.

[WoodDragon]

'Spp' can also apply to multiple species from different genera - it's not necessarily used to refer to many species in just one genus.

It's all a matter of context.