Published hierarchical folk classifications of animals, plants, and a wide variety of other things are surveyed in search of similarities and differences. In contrast to classifications of other things, classifications of animals and plants distinguish more categories, are more likely to be endowed with taxonomic ranks, and obey more consistently a nomenclatural rule related to ranks. Even within the set of things other than animals and plants, there is evidence for differences among classifications of different domains. These cross-cultural regularities suggest that taxonomic judgments are not entirely determined by culture. Despite their differences, most of the classifications are similar in their average number of hierarchical levels. The small number of levels in all folk classifications suggests a general limit, possibly on memory.
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