Species Plantarum (Latin: "The Species of Plants"), a book by Carl Linnaeus, initially published in 1753, lists every species of plant known at this time, classified into genera.

Species Plantarum is the first botanical work to consistently apply the binomial nomenclature system of naming to any large group of organisms (Linnaeus' tenth edition of Systema Naturae will apply the same technique to animals for the first time in 1758).

Prior to this work, a plant species would be known by a long polynomial, such as Plantago foliis ovato-lanceolatis pubescentibus, spica cylindrica, scapo tereti (meaning "plantain with pubescent ovate-lanceolate leaves, a cylindrical spike and a terete scape") or Nepeta floribus interrupte spicatis pedunculatis (meaning "Nepeta with flowers in a stalked, interrupted spike").

These cumbersome names are replaced in Species Plantarum with two-part names, consisting of a single-word genus name, and a single-word specific epithet or "trivial name"; the two examples above become Plantago media and Nepeta cataria, respectively.

The use of binomial names had originally been developed as a kind of shorthand in a student project about the plants eaten by cattle.

After the specific epithet, Linnaeus gives a short description of each species, and a synonymy.

The descriptions are careful and terse, consisting of few words in small genera.

Becauseit is the first work to consistently apply binomial names it is considered the starting point for the naming of plants. (The nomenclature of some non-vascular plants and all fungi uses later starting points).