Folk taxonomy is a dialect naming system based on local culture. It refers to the method and pro-cess of categorizing organisms that exist in the folk in addition to scientific taxonomy. Many studies have proven that folk taxonomy is very similar to scientific taxonomy, and it plays an indispensable role in the in-vestigation and documentation of biodiversity, conservation of biocultural diversity, and sustainable use of bioresources. With the increasing cultural homogeneity and biodiversity loss, much precious traditional know-ledge associated with folk taxonomy has been lost before it is recorded and revealed. Thus, it is urgent to save traditional folk taxonomic knowledge. Herein, the concept, main research contents and progress of folk taxonomy were reviewed, and the existing problems in folk taxonomy were prospected, hoping to provide help in fully understanding folk taxonomy and in doing related research.