Some time ago I received this question from a reader:
From: J.B.
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 8:20 PM
To: 'Margaret Conover'
Subject: RE: L.
Hi Margaret,
Do you also know why Salvia hispanica has the ’L.’ in its name? Are there other varieties (A., B., C., D.)? To my knowledge L. is ‘alba’ in greek, but what does it mean in the name of a plant? I hope you can clarify this for me.
Thank you very much for your time to answer my questions.
Best Regards, J.B.
Here's my response:
Clever guess, but no. There's no A., B., C. variety of chia!!
The "L." stands for the name of the botanist who first gave this plant its name: Carolus Linnaeus. Linnaeus was the Swedish botanist who invented our modern binomial (two name) system of naming plants and who is responsible for naming 9,000 of our most common plant species.
Linnaeus first named this plant Salvia hispanica based upon his belief that chia is native to Spain (rather than Mexico). Linnaeus' herbarium collection of pressed plant specimens is available on the web.
Here are links to websites featuring Linnaeus' original chia specimens, preserved for about 250 years.
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So to review: The complete botanical name of chia is: Salvia hispanica L.
Notice that "Salvia" is capitalized and that both "Salvia" and "hispanica" are italicized. Sometimes, you will see them underlined, instead. This is because they are Latin words!
The "L." represents the author's name and it is never capitalized or underlined, because it's in English.
Sometimes among botanists, there is confusion or disagreement about the species that is being discussed, because it is not always clear whether two similar populations are separate species. At that point, these experts would need to refer to the original published descriptions of the plants, and compare different author's interpretations.
So in a technical botanical publication, the author's name is important. In popular publications, it really isn't necessary. Regarding the correct name for chia, there is never any disagreement, and the "L." may be omitted in most cases.
So, in my opinion, Salvia hispanica is the best name for chia.
(If you need to know more about scientific names, this Wikipedia article is a good place to start.)