Demystifying Botanical Names
 (Read 50+ times)
By Glory Lennon
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Botanical names can be so confusing. Everyone tells me this and if truth be told I was like that too back in the day. But as with all things practice and study make perfect, or perhaps almost perfect. Perfect, after all, would mean you know everything and as Thomas Jefferson once said, “Though I am an old man I am but a young gardener”. This didn’t mean he started gardening as an elderly gentleman but rather that even experienced horticulturists can learn something knew every day if they keep their eyes open. No, you need not sound like you swallowed a text book in order to have a beautiful landscape but it definitely can’t hurt. You can at least learn a few basics so you don’t feel like a total dunce at the garden center.
Botanical names consists of the genus, the species and often an additional name in quotes, the cultivar or variety of the plant. The genus is the official scientific name of the plant. It’s sort of like your surname. You share it with several others in your family. The species is a bit like your legal name, the one on your birth certificate and the one your parents thought carefully about before sticking you with it. On the plant the species usually is a description of some quality of the plant, like Dagwood Bumstead's blonde wife Blondie.
The species can tell us such things as leaf form, size, shape, color, origin and peculiarities of different cultivars. The cultivar name is merely to distinguish it from others of the same genus and species, kind of like a twist on your real name if you were unfortunate enough, like me, to be named after a relation. I go by Glory and my mother by Gloria. We each have a “cultivar” name.
At times you will also find on plant labels the most common name for the plant. This can come either before or after the genus, species and cultivar names. This is rather like the name your best friends call you because they know and like you best. I have one friend who calls me Glow, others call me Gloria, my uncles, all ten of them, call me Gloitiya (please don’t ask me why) and yet others go with Glory. Plants are like that, too. All their friends from different places on earth give them different names.
I hope this brief explanation is useful for deciphering the plant label. To truly understand it, however, we shall apply it to real life. So, let’s pretend we’re at the nursery and we find a plant with a label saying, Salix Babylonica “Crispa”. Salix is the genus, Babylonica is the species and “Crispa” is the cultivar name. Its common name is the Corkscrew Willow. Probably this name would follow the scientific name. If you came across a plant only labeled as Salix Babylonica with no other identifying name you most likely would have the more common Weeping Willow, the grandmother of the bunch, if you will.
Does any of this make sense? Gosh, I hope so. If not, drop me an e-mail and I’ll try again. In the meantime keep planting even if you can’t make heads or tails of the stupid label. Your garden is undoubtedly wonderful so, who needs to sound smart anyway?
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Author Bio Box: Glory Lennon
 Visit http://www.helium.com/user/32782 for more fascinating gardening lessons, amusing short stories and intriguing novel excerpts.
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