Health & Fitness
That Plant's Called WHAT? A Gardener's Lament
Remembering plant names becomes tougher than growing them
At a book signing yesterday, a woman showed up to buy my newest gardening novel—told me, in the process, that she also had picked up a book that, guaranteed, taught the correct way to pronounce plant names. Where would a guy even start? Most plants have at least three or more names. Some have dozens, including the official Latin name—which commonly also has Greek roots.
Take oenothera, aka snow drops or evening primroses. I love these guys—have a couple of stands of them in my yard. Its species name, Onagra (“food of onager”, whatever that means) first shows up in botanical circles in the late 1500s. If Wikipedia is to be believed, the origins are Greek (linguistically as murky as “donkey catcher” and “wine seeker”). Apparently the Latin name means “plant who causes sleep”. I’m getting tired just trying to remember them all!
Popular names for plants tend to come from 1) how they behave—in the case of oenothera, evening primrose because that’s when the flowers open. 2) Or how they look (another common name is sundrop or suncup, a description of the flower’s lozenge-like bright yellow petals and large flowerheads.) 3) Or how they are used (one of oenothera’s nicknames, Kings cureall, stems from its use at one time for handling everything from asthma to digestive problems.)
The more popular and historic the plant, the more the nicknames. Oenothera apparently have been around for a long time. Scientists speculated they migrated north from below the equator during the Ice Age. USDA maps show the plant now happily ensconced across most of North America except for a thin corridor from Idaho to Arizona, which probably explains why it struggles in one of the desert-condition beds on the west side of my house. While our gov-folk commonly worry about plants sneaking in to the U.S. from abroad, this sturdy garden favorite seems to have spread from the Colonies to Europe in the 1600s.
Once, in a moment of gardener’s hubris, I decided to make it my mission in life to learn the Latin names of every perennial I came across. That wore out as a goal...fast. I had my hands full just taking care of them. Still, oenothera is one I dutifully remember. Spelling? Now that’s something else again. Hat’s off to my fan who was also trying to figure out how to pronounce ‘em!
