Re: Latin Names

Maria,

Here's The Familiar Name Reference List which has some, but by no means
all, listed by common name:

http://www.gardenmakers.com/cmname.htm

Andrew N. Gagg's PHOTO FLORA has a list of plant names - botanical first,
then common - again, not every one of them.

http://www.gagg.mcmail.com/flora.htm#L

MANITOBA PLANTS AND ANIMALS purports to list every higher plant and animal
in the province with common names where they exist.  Starts out with
Lichens and goes on from there...not many Lichens have a common name :-) 
Latin name is listed first.

http://www.winnipeg.freenet.mb.ca/iphome/s/soem/91/species.html

BONAP (Biota of North America Program) has a pretty marvelous resource, A
Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada,
and Greenland.  

This URL   http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/bonapgen/boncomxx.htm    takes
you to a page where you can query the checklist by generic 'common' name. 
When you click on a letter, it takes you to a page with a drop down menu
listing generic common plant names and also tells you the botanical latin
for it.  If you select one, it takes you to a page listing all of the
species by latin name with the common name following.  At the bottom of the
query page, you can select query by technical generic name, which gives you
the botanical latin genus name plus the family it belongs to and you can
end up with the same list.

This is particularly valuable if you have no clue what family a plant
belongs to and are hunting a photo.  The TAMU Vascular Plant Image Gallery
lists by botanical family and is a great place to start looking for what a
particular species of plant looks like....but you gotta know what family it
belongs to to find it.  http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/gallery.htm

Botany.com has an Index of plants by Botanical name that, if it were
actually comprehensive, would be very valuable.  But, even as it stands -
unfinished - it does contain a lot of information.  Select the letters the
plant begins with and you will find a list of what they have, when linked
takes you to a page describing the plant, plus for the ones I've checked,
giving propagation info....with some photos.
http://www.botany.com/index1.html

And, last, but by no means least, something I've been meaning to tell
everyone about...Tom Clothier recently produced a real gem of a page
entitled "Botanical Binomials - What Do Plant Names Mean?", wherein he
explains in very clear and understandable terms what goes into making up a
botanical name.  Plus he has put together a good sized list of them in a
dictionary (link to this is on this page).  If you're a beginner at
botanical names, this is a must read.  If you feel pretty comfortable with
them, this is still a must read!  Tom just keeps on giving all of us more
and more resources.  If you have not poked around his site, I highly
recommend it, there is so much information for all of us there...plus he's
got lots of photos.

http://www.anet-chi.com/~manytimes/page35.htm

And, as a final word on botanical names...just keep on truckin'...learning
botanical names takes a while, but it will happen and one day you'll even
find yourself thinking of plants by their botanical names.  Now, saying the
bloody things out loud is a whole 'nother story ;-)

As for query about working organic matter into your beds.  Rotted wood
chips, or failing that, fine bark mulch is good...esp. combined with a few
bags of composted cow manure.

I'm not a real fan of Jackson and Perkins...there are a lot of much better
nurseries out there.  I've been writing about some of them if you are
interested...Url to current one is in my SIG.

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor:  Gardening in Shade
current article: Mailorder Nurseries - On and Off Line, Part 8,  Potpourri
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----------
> From: Maria Nauman <mnauman@mountdesales.org>
> Date: Thursday, March 04, 1999 1:44 PM
> 
> A few questions:
> 
> 1). Can anyone recommend an internet site on which I can click quickly to
> match up the Latin plant names frequently used on this list with the more
> common moniker, with which I usually am more familiar?

> 
> 3). Seems like I should work "organic matter" into the soil of my
three-year
> old garden. It is populated with perennials. As I do not have a compost
heap
> (nor the space for one), any recommendations?
> 
> 
> 5). Re: catalogs. Yes, Michigan Bulb is el-stinko! I learned that the
hard
> way, unfortunately. But I recently received a Jackson & Perkins catalog
--
> there's more in it than roses. Thoughts on quality and prices anyone?
> 
> Maria C. Schaefer Nauman '86
> Mount de Sales Academy
> mnauman@mountdesales.org
> 

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