j. FAQ: Plant Names

Index

The naming of plants: scientific names
The naming of plants: common names

Again, it is not the intention of IBC to create its own material when so much good information is readily available in print or on the internet.  This brief thread merely gives responses to the questions often asked about plant names.  

Is it important to know this sort of stuff? Yes it is. At the very least, calling a tree by its correct name in a forum question can go a long way to getting you the right assistance.  Similarly, knowing the correct name will greatly help when researching that plant.

There is a lot of information about scientific names of plants - some of it very academic and complex. All of them explain where plant names come from and the conventions involved in how you write them.

The following is an easy to digest explanation for those who don't have much prior knowledge of plant names: KEW INFO SHEET


Other good information sources for beginners include: THIS

I have often been asked; "Does it matter if we don't write the names using italics and such like?". Some people would say not, but my own personal opinion is that Bonsai is a form of horticulture so why shouldn't we follow what is an international "code". If not, we may just be undoing all the hard work that went in literally over centuries to get something which has international status.

As you'll have seen in the articles linked to in the previous section, the major difficulty with common names is that on too many occasions different plants share a common name and this gets very confusing.

Yet again, there is a lot of information about common names out there. What we are giving you here is a very handy reference compiled by IBC's own bonsaisr -Iris Cohen. The link given allows you to download or print your own copy of the document. Iris updates it regularly and the updated version will supersede the original. We will notify you of when there has been an update.

With many thanks to Iris.

Iris's Glossary

fiona wrote:As you'll have seen in the articles linked to in the previous section, the major difficulty with common names is that on too many occasions different plants share a common name and this gets very confusing.

equally confusing, but nothing to be done about it, is when there really are scientific synonyms for the same plant ;-)

just to give an example: ulmus minor as example (i'll let you wiki and google that)

Everything changes. There are synonyms (older or incorrect scientific names) for many plants. They are made necessary by additional genetic research, by historical research, and for other reasons. Still, use of an older scientific name for a plant is a MUCH better pointer to that species than is a common name such as "ironwood" which has been applied to so many plants.

I have found The Hutchinson Dictionary of Plant Names: Common and Botanical, Helican Publishing Ltd., a UK publisher, to be especially useful in sorting out these kinds of confusion.

fiona wrote:What we are giving you here is a very handy reference compiled by IBC's own bonsaisr -Iris Cohen. The link given allows you to download or print your own copy of the document. Iris updates it regularly and the updated version will supersede the original. We will notify you of when there has been an update.

Iris's Glossary

Alas, I couldn't check on my own glossary. When I clicked on the link, An ad appeared, followed by a download agent that only works for Windows. Normally I have no trouble with links in IBC. Can you fix a link that will also send the glossary to Mac owners? If anyone else has this problem, just tell them to send me a PM with their e-address. There are plenty of electrons to go around.
Iris

hmmm...worked just fine for me on both a PC and Mac....although I will admit you have to look closely at the mediafire page to determine which link to click.

Here is a link that might make for easier access if you choose...the document can be viewed or downloaded by anyone and most all devices from this link....but it is from my personal google account.
http://goo.gl/dOVpR

John

Hi .
Please put some tropical plants also

Someone needs to volunteer to do that.    

Iris, I have the pdf. copy of your glossary on my Mac desktop. I could send it to you if this is what you need.

Norma

Huh? I don't need a copy of the glossary. I have it here in my computer. I'm assuming Fiona updates it whenever I send out a new edition.
Out of 175 entries, 38 are tropical. Several more are subtropical or half-hardy. I am not going to add more entries. The printout is 5 pages. I would have to subtract some hardy species in order to add tropicals. If you tell me which tropicals you think are the most important, I will consider them.
Iris