A rose by any other name

[Garden Group]

This may have been a topic before, I didn't search for it, so forgive me if this has been done before. I was prompted to think about flower/plant names yesterday in another discussion. I called a plant "widow's curse" the common name for goutweed and F asked where that name came from. 

Back in the day when we had a herb farm, I had to learn not only common names but Latin names as well. And far from being an affectation, knowing the Latin name saved me a lot of grief when purchasing plants for my farm gardens. I wanted to buy a significant quantity of tarragon plants because they are virtually impossible to grow from seed. A vendor (quite unscrupulous in my mind) offered me some plants at a very good price. However, Artemisia dracunculus is very difficult to distinguish between the French and Russian variety. The Russian version is of very inferior quality for cooking. So in this case, I had to do a taste test on the leaves. The supposed French tarragon was in fact the subsp. A. dracunculus dracunculoides which is of very inferior quality. True French cooking tarragon is A.dracunculus sativa and has a very pungent, anise like taste. (On a side note, I have a great roasted chicken tarragon recipe that is to die for.) 

So taste test was the clue I needed, but the labeling practices of some nurseries really bugs me.

So here's the thing, are there regional local names for some plants you have. Pictures would be wonderful as well. Or post a picture and let's see how many "local" names any one plant goes by. This is the widow's curse I mentioned to F.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Most of my plants I call by what to me is the common name so I don't think it's regional, go know. I use Latin names too and Fine Gardening has a nice pronunciation index at least occasionally. For years I thought Cotoneasters were Cottoneasters, don't ask me why. But here's a weed I often get and I like in the wild, I call it jewelweed. But it grows very tall and uses lots of water so I try to pull it. I see it is used as an antidote for poison ivy and it's good for athlete's foot, and yet it is also called Touch Me Not : ) The formal name is Impatiens capensis, which I didn't know. I see this will be a learning discussion.

[F, Calla & Luca]

This is an interesting discussion to me. I realized that I don't use a common names for plants such as Clematis but they are known as the queen of vines. And one of my gardening idols, Ruth Stout, taught me in her books that portulaca is also called moss rose.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I grew up loving moss rose, and that was the only name I ever knew it by until I was middle-aged.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Absolutely. Last summer we had a discussion about moon flowers and there are several different plants which are called that. The two mentioned are both poisonous though.

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