©2007 S.W. Haddock, JrI know, I know... geraniums! But, did you know that "geranium" is just the common name for Pelargonium? Did you even care? And, did you further know that Geranium is actually a group of hardy perennials, often cultivated as ground-covers? Actually, you should care about plant nomenclature.
Now, I sat down with Sam's pink geranium, fully intending to wax poetic about the old days, grandmothers, geraniums and gardens. Suddenly, I veered off course and went off on a tangent about plant names.
It's not unusual to find several plants with the same common name, which is why botanical Latin (stop groaning - it's not that hard) is so important. Armed with the Latin name, you're sure to access accurate information about a particular specimen. You'll also get exactly what you want at the local garden center. In fact, most garden center catalogs will list both Latin and common names. This is an excellent way to ease yourself into a second language.
You may become so interested in the topic, that a small pronouncing dictionary of botanical names is in order. If you like language, I think you'll truly love botanical Latin. You'll soon find that plants belong to certain groups, or families... like the rose family, or Rosaceae. Just for fun, look this one up and discover that apple, cherry, rose, spirea, pyracantha and rose of sharon are all related - in addition to a multitude of other family members.
Seems like Carl von Linne (1707-1778), the Swedish botanist who founded a modern system to organize and classify botany and zoology, was onto something. You may have heard of Carolus Linnaeus (Carl's Latinized name), as the authority on classification of flowering plants, as well as animals, based on binomial* Latin names. A newer system was developed by French botanist Antoine Jussieu (1748-1836) and forms the basis for modern plant classification.
Geraniums, or more correctly, Pelargoniums, are sweet, old fashioned, nostalgic flowers. On this particular day, however, they have led us to a useful, interesting bit of history... which I hoped you enjoyed, as much as I. We'll save the poetry and decorative prose for another day.
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*binomial - a two-part Latin name of a plant or animal... Genus, followed by specific epithet - for example, Tsuga canadensis or Canadian Hemlock. Often the specific epithets are descriptive... canadensis/Canadian, japonica/Japanese, rubra/red, purpurea/purple, alba/white, viridis/green, luteus/yellow, etc. At some point, in the not-too-distant future, we'll revisit the topic of botanical Latin with further explanations and examples (so read up!).
©Deb Lambert 2007
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