Section (botany)

In botany, a section (Latin: sectio) is a taxonomic rank below the genus, but above the species.

[1] The subgenus, if present, is higher than the section, and the rank of series, if present, is below the section.

Sections may in turn be divided into subsections.

[2] Sections are typically used to help organise very large genera, which may have hundreds of species.

[1] A botanist wanting to distinguish groups of species may prefer to create a taxon at the rank of section or series to avoid making new combinations, i.e. many new binomial names for the species involved.