bhaskar saikia

Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, once famously got his revenge on a critic through scientific naming.

The critic was Johann Georg Siegesbeck, a Prussian botanist who harshly criticized Linnaeus’s sexual system of plant classification, calling it “loathsome harlotry” because it described plant reproduction in terms of male and female parts.

In response, Linnaeus named a small, unimpressive weed Sigesbeckia after him—essentially immortalizing his critic with a plant many considered insignificant and weedy.

Linnaeus’s move was both scientific and sly. Sigesbeckia still exists today as a genus in the sunflower family (Asteraceae), and the story remains a classic example of scientific shade thrown with botanical flair.