[5] Species Plantarum was 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 would 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")[6] or Nepeta floribus interrupte spicatis pedunculatis (meaning "Nepeta with flowers in a stalked, interrupted spike").

[6][7] The use of binomial names had originally been developed as a kind of shorthand in a student project about the plants eaten by cattle.

[8] After the specific epithet, Linnaeus gave a short description of each species, and a synonymy.

[13] The species were arranged in around a thousand genera, which were grouped into 24 classes, according to Linnaeus' sexual system of classification.