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4. It is quite common that two unrelated species have the same common name. For example, two
common woodland plants are Snowberry and Creeping Snowberry. The first, Symphoricarpos albus
(L.) Blake is a relative of the honeysuckles, whereas Creeping Snowberry (Gaultheria hispidula
(L.)Muhl.) is in the Ericaceae or Heath Family.
The case against common names is exemplified by the genus Pyrola, common plants of the northern
woodland. The common names for Pyrola are Shinleaf or Pyrola. The name Shinleaf on its own
implies one particular species, Pyrola elliptica Nuttal, but may also refer to the genus. Pyrola
asarifolia Michaux is known not only as Pink Pyrola or Pink Shinleaf, but also as Bog Wintergreen.
The name Wintergreen also applies to at least five other genera. Wintergreen (Gaultheria
procumbens L.) is also known as Checkerberry. Chimaphila maculata (L.) Pursh has the common
names Spotted Wintergreen or Striped Wintergreen, and Monesis uniflora (L.) Gray is called
One-flowered Wintergreen or One-flowered Pyrola. These three, at least, are in the same family.
Less closely related are Trientalis borealis Rafinesque, which is known both as Chickweed
Wintergreen and Starflower, and Polygala paucifolia Willdenow, which is called Fringed Polygala
and Gaywings as well as Flowering Wintergreen.
The meaning and origin of plant names:
One of the reasons why people shy at scientific names is that they are unfamiliar, and sometimes
rather long and they may seem difficult to pronounce. Understanding and therefore remembering
names of plants becomes much easier, simpler, and more interesting, if the meaning or the origin the
name is known. Many of the specific epithets are very common. They describe color, shape of
leaves, habit, number of parts, size, habitat, place of origin and so on. Most of these are Latin, but
unfortunately, to confuse the issue, some are Greek. For example, epithets describing four leaves
could be either quadrifolius (Latin) or tetraphyllus (Greek), they both mean "four-leaves".
Nevertheless, many of the Greek and Latin words which go to make up species epithets are the
origins of many English words, and the meaning of names can often be interpreted by someone with
no Classical background. A list of words common in species epithets is given in Appendix I.
Specific epithets which honour people may be recognized because they end in ‘ii’ if the name ends
with a consonant, ‘i’ if the name ends with a vowel except a, and ‘e’ if the name ends with an a.
Naming a plant after a colleague was (and is) a good way of complimenting him or her, especially
as, if he or she was a botanist, the favour might be returned. The names of some North American
species of the genus Sphagnum conjure up a wonderful image of a mid-nineteenth century
bryological ring:
Sphagnum girgensohnii Russow;
Sphagnum russowii Warnstorf;
Sphagnum warnstorfii Russow; and
Sphagnum wulfianum Girgensohn.
Generic names are not always so easy to interpret, but there is no reason why Carex should be more
difficult to learn that Sedge, or Prunus than Cherry or Pinus than Pine. Linnaeus showed unlimited
imagination in inventing names for the plants he was cataloguing. Many, such as Quercus, retained
their ancient Latin names, others merely described some aspect of the plant. Aster, for example,
means "star" and clearly describes the flowers. Sometimes Linnaeus was much more fanciful. Bog
Rosemary, known at that time as Erica palustris pendula...., caught his attention. He imagined that