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Botanical Nomenclature Should Simplify Horticulture

“Buick” is comparable to a genus.

The language of gardening can sometimes seem confusing. That is because so much of it is Latin. Some of it is Latinized Greek, or Latinized names of botanists. As confusing as it may seem, this botanical nomenclature is quite simple. It is, furthermore, more practical than the use of regional common names. Botanical nomenclature is practically universal.

Botanical nomenclature is not actually a language. It is a standardized system of naming botanical organisms, or plants. It is so standardized that it is the same everywhere in the World, in every language. Common names are different in different regions or in different languages. In that regard, common names can be more confusing than botanical names.

Botanical nomenclature is basically binomial, which means that it uses only two names. The first name is the general or genus name. The second name is the specific or species name. The genus name is capitalized, while the species name is not. Both are italicized. A species name is often an adjective that describes a characteristic or origin of its genus.

Many botanical names include a third variety or cultivar name. Such names are in single quotes, without italicization, but with capitalization. For example, Sequoia sempervirens ‘Soquel’ is ‘Soquel’ redwood. “Sequoia” is its genus name. “sempervirens” is its species name, which also describes it as evergreen. “‘Soquel'” is the particular cultivar or variety.

Botanical nomenclature is actually quite similar to automotive nomenclature. Italicization and lack of capitalization of the species names are the primary differences. For example, Buick, Chrysler and Mercury are all like genera. Electra, Imperial and Grand Marquis are all like species of these particular genera. Buick Electra is therefore like a botanic name.

Buick Electra ‘Limited’ is like a cultivar of Electra, which is more specific than species. Its family is General Motors, which is more general than genus. Botanical nomenclature has families too, although they are rarely mentioned. Sequoia sempervirens ‘Soquel’ is in the family of “Cupressaceae”. Botanical family names lack italicization but not capitalization.

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Horridculture – Common Names

Snowdrop is Galanthus nivalis. Snowflake is Leucojum vernum. Snowdrop is the rarer of the two. I have seen it only in pictures from other regions. The potential for consequences of its misidentification are therefore quite minimal. That is fortunate. I learned Leucojum vernum as snowdrop. Locally, no one ever corrected this transgression, probably because no one here was aware that it was a transgression. Most likely learned it the same as I did. Similarly, we learned heaths as heathers. Since heathers are very rare here, there is not much to compare heaths to. Fortunately, snowdrop, snowflake, heath and heather all have botanical names, which are universally the same everywhere. Well, at least they should be. During the past few years, I have noticed that the tree that I leaned as Eucalyptus pulverulenta is now Eucalyptus cinerea, and what I knew as Eucalyptus cinerea is now Eucalyptus pulverulenta. It is as if the two have simply traded names. Now that more information than ever in history is so readily available online, it is amazing what information is unavailable. I can confirm the identity of neither species of Eucalyptus! Many modern cultivars, particularly hybrids, lack species names between their genus name and cultivar name, as if such designations are no longer important. In that regard, their botanical names are no more defining than their common names. At least some of the common names are entertaining, such as pig face, pig squeak, chicken liver plant, brazen hussy, naked lady, twisty baby, mother-in-law’s tongue, sneezewort, shaggy soldier, corpse flower, sticky monkey flower, bear’s breeches, sticky willy, turkey tangle frog fruit, laurel-leaf snail seed, love in a mist, love in a puff, dead nettle, butter and eggs, teasel, fleabane and yesterday, today and tomorrow. Goodness, that is a big list, and it could go on.

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Horridculture – African

Delegates from Arabia, Africa, Germany Pakistan and (almost) Turkey

‘The Rescuers’ is an animated movie for children from 1977 that features the Rescue Aid Society, which is an international organization of mice. (I am trying to be very brief with this description. Besides, I do not know much about it.) Delegates of the Rescue Aid Society represent various countries, such as Arabia, Germany, Pakistan, Turkey and Africa. Yes, ‘Africa’. Although one can assume that ‘Arabia’ refers to Saudi Arabia, it could refer to the entire region, which includes several countries. Similarly, although one can assume that ‘Germany’ refers to West Germany, it could refer to both West Germany and East Germany, which were still separate countries in 1977. ‘Africa’, though, is not so easily dismissed. It is an entire continent, which includes more countries than any other continent. Horticulturally, Africa does not get much more regard. African sumac, African daisy, African iris, African violet and African tulip tree are all from Africa, but their names reveal no more than that about their origin. Italian cypress, English holly, French lavender, Norway spruce and Grecian bay all have names that are more descriptive about their European origins. Similarly, the names of Japanese boxwood, Chinese elm, Korean fir, Burmese honeysuckle and Indian laurel describe their Asian origins. The names of California fan palm, Oregon grape, Virginia creeper, Texas bluebonnet and Arizona cypress are even more descriptive, by designating individual States within the United States of America, which is within the continent of North America. Here in California, some common names are even more regionally descriptive, such as Monterey pine, Santa Cruz cypress, Santa Barbara daisy, San Francisco campion and Montara manzanita. Although most of these examples are unknown or rare beyond their native ranges, a few are quite common elsewhere. Yet, somehow, most of what was exported from Africa is merely ‘African’.

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Botanical Names ‘Should’ Be Universal.

Is it naked lady, amaryllis lily, belladonna lily, Jersey lily, resurrection lily, August lily or March lily?

No horticulturist has yet identified the flowers that Mickey Mouse picked from the porch at the home of Minnie Mouse to give here when she came to the door. Most of us agree that they are a black and white variety of ‘posy’, since they look so similar to those that Popeye picks in the same manner for Olive Oyle, before being smacked aside by Bluto, who then takes the flowers and presents them to Miss Oyle as ‘posies’. However, real posies look nothing like the daisy like flowers of cartoon courtship. Perhaps these flowers will remain as unidentified as the variety of the yellow tulips that the Pink Panther replaces with an also unidentified pink variety of tulips.

Misidentification of plants is probably more common now than ever. Plants are becoming available from other regions, where they may be known by common names that are very different from familiar or local common names. Even Latin or ‘botanical’ names, which should be universal, are not always perfectly reliable, since they are so often based on variable common names. The problem with misidentification is that we sometimes get plants that are very different from what we were expecting.

When purchasing plants or seeds online, it is always best to confirm that the Latin names are what they should be, since they are still more reliable than common names. Misidentification is more likely if the Latin name does not correspond to any of the known common names of the particular plant.

For example, seed that is described as that of ‘swamp maple, Acer saccharinum’ most likely really is Acer saccharinum, even though it is more commonly known locally as ‘silver maple’. The common names, both ‘swamp’ and ‘silver’ maple are regional, but are both correct. However, seed of ‘Norway maple, Acer macrophyllum’ should not be trusted, since the common name does not correspond to any of the several common names associated with the Latin name. It may actually be one or the other, but there is no way of knowing which.

It should not be assumed that plants that are known primarily by their Latin name can not be misidentified; since it actually sometimes happens. Yucca aloifolia that has naturalized on the Gulf Coast of Texas is known to many as Yucca gloriosa!

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Seemingly Complicated Latin Names Simplify Nomenclature.

Tecoma stans has only one Latin name, but a few common names; esperanza, yellow bells, yellow elder, yellow bignonia and trumpet bush.

If I remember correctly, it was Wednesday evenings when my three college roommates and I would gather in the parlor of our apartment on Boysen Street in San Luis Obispo to watch Star Trek: the Next Generation. One of my roommates, who has since returned to Cal Poly as a professor of rangeland resource management, traditionally made cornbread for the occasion . . .  with butter and honey . . . mmm. So, for half an hour each week, we learned more about the remotely futuristic cultures of planets many light years away than about our studies.

Thanks to a contraption referred to only on rare occasion as the ‘universal translator’, nearly everyone in this quadrant of the galaxy will be able to understand each other within the next four centuries. No matter what language is spoken, it will all be perceived as the same universal language. Unfortunately, the ‘universal translator’ has not yet been invented. The many languages used on this single planet will consequently continue to interfere with accurate communication.

This is why horticulturists, biologists, and many other professionals who may interact with colleagues who speak other languages or even slightly different regional dialects use Latin to identify, among other things, biological organisms. Latin names may be cumbersome to pronounce and daunting to spell, but are universal to those of us who use them. This is important because the ‘common names’ are so regionally variable. 

For example, some of the European maples that we know as maples here are known as sycamores in England, but are known everywhere by their Latin name of Acer. (Latin is traditionally italicized.) Similarly, North American sycamores that are known as maples, planes or plane trees in various regions are all likewise known everywhere by their Latin name of Platanus. With few exceptions, the universality of Latin names facilitates accurate identification.

Latin names are therefore very helpful when researching plants. A tree known simply as a ‘cedar’ might be a calocedrus, arborvitae, juniper, cypress, chamaecyparis or a true cedar just to name a few. Knowing that this particular tree is more specifically a ‘red cedar’ perhaps limits the possibilities to arborvitae or juniper. (Differentiation between ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ red cedars is often neglected in the East and West where the respective cedar is predominant.) Identifying the tree as a Juniperus virginiana will help us find the most accurate information about it, even though it is not really a cedar at all, but a juniper.   

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Our Lord’s Candle

(Hespero)Yucca whipplei – our Lord’s candle

(Hespero)Yucca whipplei has an identity crisis. My contemporaries and I learned it as Yucca whipplei. Botanists now insist that it identifies as Hesperoyucca whipplei, although, like any and all other species of Yucca, it can hybridize with any and all other species of Yucca. (If it is a different species of the same genus, such hybrids would be interspecific hybrids. If it is a different genus, such hybrids would be intergeneric hybrids, which is even weirder.) Also, my contemporaries and I learned its common name as Spanish bayonet. Botanists prefer to designate it as chaparral yucca. It is alternately known as foothill yucca, Quixote yucca or our Lord’s candle. Because it was the only species of the genus that was locally native, we typically referred to it merely as yucca. Later, I learned that Spanish bayonet is a general designation for a few arboriform species of Yucca, which develop trunks and perhaps limbs, such as Yucca aloifolia, and that Spanish dagger is actually more commonly a generic designation for a few species that lack significant trunks or limbs, such as this particular species. Anyway, regardless of all this nonsense, I had been wanting to grow this species since encountering it while studying horticulture at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, but could not find an appropriate situation in which to do so. It is too wickedly spiny for most landscapes. I was told that a specimen inhabited one of the landscapes at work, but because it did not look familiar, I was sceptical. It adapts so efficiently to whatever situation that it grows into, that its foliage here is somewhat different from how it develops in the wild around San Luis Obispo. Its impressively tall bloom is very familiar though, and is very distinctive of the species.

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Dual Citizenship

As brightly colorful as Persian buttercup is, I still prefer white.

French peony Persian buttercup was added to one of our landscapes last year. They are not two different perennials, such as French peony and Persian buttercup. They are a group of cultivars of one species, Ranunculus asiaticus ‘French Peony’. Ranunculus asiaticus is the species of Persian buttercup. ‘French Peony’ is its cultivar.

So, is it French or Persian? Well, yes.

Ranunculus asiaticus, Persian buttercup is native to Southwestern Asia, Southeastern Europe, Northeastern Africa and elsewhere within the Mediterranean Region. This range could potentially include the Southern Coast of France within the Mediterranean Region, but much more likely includes Persia within Southwestern Asia. My guess would be that Persian buttercup is as Persian as its name says it is.

‘French Peony’ is a group of cultivars that could have been developed anywhere and given an appealing name that promotes its marketability, but was most likely developed in France, where most breeding of this particular species was done. My guess would be that ‘French Peony’ is as French as its name says it is.

Of course, French peony Persian buttercup could have been developed anywhere, even Persia, and merely given its appealing French name without actually being French. Alternatively, it could have been developed completely in France, from Ranunculus asiaticus from the Southern Coast of France, without actually being Persian. For that matter, it could have been developed in Greece from Greek stock.

To me, French peony Persian buttercup seems to be chicly cosmopolitan. I remember it as popular for urban window boxes within the greatest cities of the World, such as San Jose, Oakland and San Francisco. If I had not seen that it is also popular in Reno and Portland, I would consider it to be as Californian as so many other exotic species and varieties that are popular here.

These would be nice for Ronald McDonald’s garden.
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Common Names Are Potentially Uncommon

Lily is neither calla nor canna.

Nomenclature is simply a structured technique of naming. Botanic nomenclature assigns universally precise general or genus names with specific or species names to all plants. Such botanical names are also scientific and Latin names, but not common names. They are binomial with their uncapitalized species names after their capitalized genus names.

Latin, scientific or botanical names are the same for everyone everywhere, regardless of regional language. They simplify documentation and distribution of botanical information for plants that have different regional common names. Even if all other information needs translation, botanical names do not. They are really more common than common names.

Realistically, common names are no more common than common sense. Many regional names are common only within isolated or contained regions, such as individual islands of Polynesia. Aloalo of Hawaii are simply familiar hibiscus here. Lily of the Nile seems to be the only common name for Agapanthus, but is more familiar as thanh anh in Vietnam.

Acer platanoides is Latin for ‘maple which resembles a sycamore’. Acer pseudoplatanus is Latin for ‘maple which is a false sycamore’. Both are maples here, but also sycamores in England. Conversely, Platanus X acerifolia, which translates to ‘sycamore with maple foliage’ is a sycamore here, but a plane in England. Common names might be confusing.

This is why botanical names are so important. Arborists and horticulturists both here and in England recognize them regardless of possible inconsistencies with common names. Of course, common names are useful regionally. They may be easier to remember, more appealing or merely amusing. Pigsqueak and sticky monkey flower are difficult to forget.

Nonetheless, it might be helpful to be aware that some common names are inaccurate. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, unless of course, it is a Confederate rose, Lenten rose, rose of Sharon or rock rose. None of such roses are actually roses. Neither calla lily nor canna lily is a real lily. Neither dracaena palm nor sago palm is a real palm.

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Nomenclature Was Designed For Simplicity

Simple standardized nomenclature is getting rusty.

Buick Electra used to mean something. Chrysler Imperial and Lincoln Town Car did also. That was at a time when cars were still distinguishable. Instead of random numbers with a few letters, they had distinctive names. These names, although distinct, conformed to a standardized pattern. This pattern of naming was comparable to botanical nomenclature. 

According to botanical nomenclature, plants are identifiable by genus and species. Their ‘gen’us is a more ‘gen’eral designation than their ‘speci’fic ‘speci’es designation. A family is a larger and more general classification than genus, and in turn, fits into another more general group. Most of us are not concerned with the many classifications beyond family. 

For example, the botanical name of silver maple is Acer saccharinum. Acer is the genus. saccharinum is the species. Acer saccharinum is in the Sapindaceae family. (For botany, genus and species names are italicized, and species names are not capitalized.) Buick Electra is similarly in the General Motors family. Buick is its genus. Electra is its species.

Varieties and cultivars are even more specific designations within species. Some are the products of breeding. Some are naturally occurring. A cultivar is a ‘cultivated variety’ that does not perpetuate naturally like other varieties do. Most cultivars propagate by cloning. (Variety and cultivar names are capitalized and enclosed within single quotation marks.)

For example, Acer rubrum ‘October Glory’ is a cultivar of red maple. It exhibits a distinctly rounded canopy and foliar color in autumn that is superior to that of the simple species in the wild. It might compare to a Buick Skylark Gran Sport, which is essentially a cultivar of Skylark with a stronger engine. Botanical and automotive nomenclature are quite similar. 

Such similarities of nomenclature are no advantage. While cars forfeited their distinctive titles for mundane numeric designations, plants forfeited their species names for cultivar names. Such abbreviation of nomenclature interferes with accurate identification. Those unfamiliar with it may not know if Cercis ‘Forest Pansy’ is an Eastern or Western redbud, or something else.

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Automotive Horticulture

P70929The nomenclature of horticulture, or the ‘naming’ of plants, is very similar to that of automobiles. All those confusing Latin names work just like the names of cars, with species, genus and even family. The Electra is made by Buick, which is a subsidiary of General Motors. I write an article about this every so often. It probably made more sense back many years ago, when both cars and plants were simpler.

Nowadays, it is difficult to distinguish between the different kinds of cars. There are so many different kinds, and they all look so similar. Buicks are not nearly as stylish and distinctive as they once were, and do not look much better than a well outfitted Honda! Cadillac and Lincoln make station wagons, which are now known as SUVs; and they even made pickups! Many cars have one name on the outside, and another, or a few on the inside. A Chrysler might be made by Mercedes Benz, with a Japanese engine! Many cars that had been ‘imports’ are make locally. There are so many different models that some do not even get names. They just get numbers. What is the point of trying to keep track of them all?

Plants have done the same. So many of the reliable and standard specie that had been around until the 80s have been replaced by too many modern cultivars and hybrids to count. Some have been hybridized so extensively between different specie of the same genus that they are not even assigned a specie name! They are merely known by their cultivar name. For example, Grevillea ‘Peaches and Cream’ lacks a species name because no one know who the parents were. (It might be a Grevillea banksii X Greillea bipinnatifida hybrid. See the article about it at https://tonytomeo.wordpress.com/2017/09/30/peaches-and-cream-grevillea/.) What is the point of using standardized nomenclature without the standards? This is not like Madonna or Cher, who do not need last names because they are so unique. Plants need their names more than before because there are so many new ones.

Cars have been improved in the most important ways. They are much safer than older cars. They are also much more efficient and remarkably more durable. The main problem with these improvements is that cars are so difficult to maintain for those who are not professional automotive technicians. Those of us who were inclined to maintain our own vehicles years ago must now take them to mechanics. Although vehicles are designed to need much less maintenance and to last longer, they eventually need to be replaced when maintenance is no longer practical. They are not as sustainable as old cars that can sometimes be repaired with part found in a common hardware store.

Plants have likewise been improved to do what we want them to do better. Foliage is better and more resilient, and in some cases, more colorful. Flowers are more abundant, more colorful, and last longer. Whatever plants were supposed to do before, many do better now. The main problem with all the breeding and hybridizing necessary for these unnatural improvements is that it interferes with what plants need to do naturally. Some are not able to produce viable seed, (although this is an advantage for potentially invasive plants). Others are genetically weak, and therefore more susceptible to disease and insect infestation. Perennials that once perpetuated themselves indefinitely now die out in only a few years. Plants that were once easy to propagate are now not so cooperative. Like modern cars, plants can not be maintained as long as they once were, so need to be replaced instead of sustained.