Botanists rely on Latin names for plants to avoid confusion, since the flora they work with contains thousands of species, some of them common to many different lands. But it also strips away most of the romance. Would you be as interested in the appearance of a Houstonia caerulea as you might be about seeing a quaker-lady? Or does the pompous sound of Saponaria officinalis delight your ears as much as its other name, bouncing bet? Probably not.
So after we concede the absolute and concrete necessity of a system of scientific nomenclature, we intend to devote this column to more engaging - and colorful - names for our North American wildflowers.
Some herbs get their names simply to describe a part of the plant. For example, you would expect an umbrella-leaf to have leaves shaped like an umbrella — it does. And you’d expect the leaves of the birdfoot violet to be many lobed — they are. Anyone who has seen a beavertail or a fishook cactus recognizes immediately the source of the name. But so far none of them relates to the flower. (Read the rest …)
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