What's in a name...

Aug 10, 2022 17:00:42

I love common plant names. They are often so apt for the plant context. Sometimes the name is lost in the mists of time. Sometimes we make up a word for the plants before we know what others call them.
I've always called Fuchsia the 'Ballerina bush' because the flowers look like little dancers.

My Gran used to have lovely Fuchsias and we were told off for popping the flower buds!

Dicentra spectabilis has flowers that are definitely like a "lady in a bathtub"!

lady in a bathtub flower dicentra specatabilis

lady in a bathtub flower dicentra specatabilis

(source)

and I think I'm going to have to call my bladdernut a "testicle tree" instead!

Aug 12, 2022 09:28:07

One of the houses we bought came with a Turk's Cap Plant.

When I first started talking about it on the forum it was assumed that I was talking about the Turk's Cap Lily, I had never hears of it. I looked it up today to post here:

Source

I guess that might look like a Tuyk's Cap though I like my plant better for looking like a Turk's Cap:

This plant that D Tucholske recently posted for identification really does look like a Monkey's Face

At least if you look hard enough:

https://permies.com/t/189130/Woodland-plant-Identification

Aug 12, 2022 11:20:49

My favourite is the butterfly pea's Latin name - clitoria. It's a rare example (to my non Latin speaking brain anyway) of the Latin name being much more evocative than the common name.

I also always liked nigella's name of love in a mist. I never really thought that's what it looked like (the mist I get, but what's the love?), but it's a very good name.

Aug 12, 2022 11:55:43

jan, i think it’s just ‘cause they tried for a while to put ‘love’ and ‘heart’ in as many flower names as possible. it’s like saying ‘flower-in-a-mist’ to me. love-lies-bleeding (a weeping amaranth) is another favorite of mine.

Aug 12, 2022 12:06:23

That makes sense.

I'd forgotten about love lies bleeding. That's an excellent name!

Aug 18, 2022 20:10:31

Then there are the botanical names where I ask myself - what??? why???
Phyllostachys nidularia farcta

That's a bamboo plant. Why not just call it "bamboo"?

Aug 18, 2022 20:33:47

yup. when i was studying ants pretty intensely in college, one of our locals that i always enjoyed rattling off was Formica pallidafulva nitidiventris. i think that one may have been regrouped/renamed since then.

Aug 18, 2022 22:23:53

greg mosser wrote:... i always enjoyed rattling off was Formica pallidafulva nitidiventris.

That's a great lot of syllables for one little ant.

Then again, if you accidentally disturbed an entire hill whilst doing something else, it might be just the right size for all the spontaneous cuss words.

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