# Survival > Primitive Skills & Technology >  defintion of "spp" and "sp"

## wareagle69

when you look at your books and see for example thistle cirsium spp do you understand what this means?
let me quote a couple of references first samuel thayer
 the scientific name consisits of two parts. The first name s generic(indicating the geus,a closely related group of plants); it is always capitalized.the second name is specific(indicating the specis with in the genus);it is never capitalized. The scientific name is written in italics. the genus name is often abbreviated when the context makes it clear which genus we are discussing. The abbreviation "spp" means "species plural" and indicates the discussion of multiple species within one genus.

so my take on this is the thistle when the book says
THISTLE _cirsium_spp. it means it is referring to the true genus of thisltles of the genus_cirsium_as well as the nodding thistle _carduus nutans;_ it does not refer to _sonchus_(sow thistle) or to_silybum_(milk thistle. the US and canda has dozens of speies of true thistles, which is why spp is used the book is refering to the specific species of true thistle and cannot possibly cover evey single species under the genus thislte
does this help

let me also quote wikipedia-species
the authors use "spp" as a short way of saying something applies to many species within a genus, but do not wish to say that it applies to all species within that genus. 
my interpretation of this. the word deer brings a particular species to mind. but deer is genus not species of which 34 species belong to deer could actually mean moose or elk so if you are reading about what a "deer spp" eats then it is refering to all 34 species and not just to bambi.

hope this helps

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## Rick

The abbreviations "sp" and "spp" are singular and plural forms of the word specie respectively. The abbreviation "sp" is typically used when the specie name isn't known. Example: _Cirsium sp_. I know it's a thistle but not which specie. The abbreviation "spp" is used to indicate two or more species within the same genus. 

You may see the scientific or "second" name capitalized in older manuals especially if the specie was named after someone. Example: Cirsium Rickey (I just made up that name, not the fact). Finally, the scientific name is also referred to as the epithet.

It's always a good idea to read through the reference material of a manual so you understand what abbreviations in the book stand for. Just in case the author did not follow conventional nomenclature.

Good post, WE. Not something we often think about but very important in terms of understanding the plants!!!!

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## pocomoonskyeyes

What Rick said he is absolutely positively correct!!

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## wareagle69

probablly a little easier to read thru than what i wrote, thanks proffesor

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## Rick

I might also add...in WE's example of deer. An author may say that deer are eatable. In that case he/she might write it as _Cervidea spp._ meaning all species within the genus are eatable.

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## Rick

You were right on the money, WE. I just added a couple of things, that's all.

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## wareagle69

> I might also add...in WE's example of deer. An author may say that deer are eatable. In that case he/she might write it as _Cervidea spp._ meaning all species within the genus are eatable.


thats a good example of deer rick, was trying to think of an example using deer that hits the point well, hopefully this helps folks, i know i read spp all the time for a while before i learned what it meant

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## wareagle69

> You were right on the money, WE. I just added a couple of things, that's all.


well if i was wrong i would blame wikipedia and sam thayer as thats whom i was quoting :clap:

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