Question
Dear Viktoria,

I would like to aske why there is sometimes (L.) after a plant species name? What is it for? Does it need to be typed in "italic" as the species name?

Also, apart from (L.), is there any similar abbreviation?

Thanks!

Your sincerely,
raymond

Answer
In the midst of Christmas rush and two weddings, I took little time to peruse web sites pertaining to plant nomenclature.  Nowhere was I able to find an explanation.  Here is my educated guess.  Should you ever come across evidence that I guessed wrong, I would be grateful if you let me know.

The letter L. refers to Carolus von Linnaeus (Carl von Linne), the "father" of Latin binomial plant names.  It is not italicized.  It means that Linnaeus was the one to name this plant.  You may find other letters.  Those refer to the person who first found, described and named the plant.  None of these can pre-date Linnaeus, of course, but some can be his contemporaries who adapted his system.  Occasionally you will find abbreviated and even entire names; this is to distinguish between persons with the same initial(s) or similar names.