People sometimes ask me if I really know all of those botanical names I put in this column when I talk about certain plants.
The answer is no. I don't have them all memorized, but I do like to learn a plant's proper name when I put it in my garden, and although I try to remember that name, I often have to refer back to my garden journal.
I have met people who can roll Latinized terms off their tongues as though they had been speaking the language their entire lives. These people often work in horticulture, either as researchers or professional growers, and knowledge of botanical names is necessary.
Bill Hendrick's, the owner of Klyn's Nursery in Lake County once told me he doesn't know common names. Dealing with thousands of plants on a daily basis, it is important to know their names. Common names, after all, have a tendency to be bounced around from one plant to another.
We like to refer to those monikers as the plants' Latin names, but the truth is, those names aren't Latin at all. They are Latinized terms that sometimes identify the plants themselves and sometimes can tell us where the plant orginated.
A few years ago, I wondered if there wasn't a simpler way to remember these names, but there isn't. It all basically boils down to memorization. I wanted to offer a class to our local Master Gardeners on Binomial nomenclature, the system of naming plants, and I had to figure out some way of boiling it all down into more than just, ''sorry, you either know it or you don't.''
In my research, I discovered something that gave me hope for my intended class. With plants' botanical names, although we might not be able to remember every one we hear, when we do hear a name we can learn something important about that plant. Something that might help us identify it the next time we see it, or at least identify where it came from.
In the language of botanics, plants are given two names, Genus and species. The Genus (or Genera if you are speaking in plurals), is always capitalized. The species is always small letters. Sometimes you'll see the species italicized and sometimes you'll see it with an x indicating the plant's parentage. If there are three names, the third one is usually between single quotes, indicating the plant was given a name by its grower. One example would be Rosa polyantha 'The Fairy.' Rosa is the Genus of roses, polyantha is the species and identifies this rose's growth habit (low growing, small blossoms and season-long blooming), and 'The Fairy' is the name given by growers Anne and John Bentall in 1932.
Plant names can tell us a lot about them, especially the species. If a species is listed as aureus, we know a part of the plant is golden yellow, either the flowers or leaves. Variegated leaves are often labeled variegatus. When we see the word albus, we know the flowers will be white.
But not all names indicate color. Some names tell us the plant's growth habit. One of my favorite conifers is Chamaecyparis noot-katensis 'Pendula.' I know it's a mouthful, but it is one I remember because I like it so well. The Genus Chamaecyparis refers to a specific group of conifers. The species nootkatensis tells us this plant originated from Alaska, specifically the Nootka region. And the rest of the species name, 'Pendula' tells us the tree has a pendulous growth habit, and it does. The tree is tall with sturdy branches, but the soft, pliable sprays of needle-like leaves hang downward like long, green icicles off its branches.
A plant's name can tell us the texture or pattern of its leaves, Spinacia oleracea 'Savoy' spinach has a quilted or curly look to its leaves. Oleracea refers to the plant's use as a vegetable or herb. If a plant has mollis in its name, it probably has soft or fine hairs on its leaves or stems, such as Acanthus mollis, a perennial commonly known as Bear's Breeches.
Don't shy away when when you read a Latinized plant name on a garden center tag. It just means that plant is trying to tell you something about itself.