botanical - common names

I can empathize with those who haven't gotten the hang of botanical
names...takes a while and a bit of effort...but it's worth it in the
long run.

Problem with common names, as has been pointed out, is that they
differ so widely.  Not only in the US, but in other countries (even
the UK who have English as the language) they are often completely
different.  Some plants don't even have a common name in any
language...

Here are a few places on the web with lists of botanical and common
names for you guys to bookmark for when a common name doesn't get
added to a post.

botanical name index - trees
http://www.bonsai-bci.com/species/botanical_index.html

Native Plants - Shrubs, Ferns, Vines, and Trees on Reflection Riding
site
http://virtual.chattanooga.net/rriding/homepages/shrubtre.htm

B&T World Seeds has a list of 25,000 common names in many languages
with their corresponding botanical name.   It's by common name, so
finding the bot. name is a bit of a chore if you don't have the
common name, but it's huge list!
http://b-and-t-world-seeds.com/com.htm

Plants For A Future has a lovely list for the plants in their
database, arranged by family and genus, which will help you learn the
which genus name belongs to who...plus you can do a search on a plant
by bot. or common name for more information.

http://metalab.unc.edu/pfaf/D_common.html

Here's another large list of trees and shrubs by bot. name with
several common names where they exist.

http://www.ties.k12.mn.us/~raygor/BonsaiPC.txt

Here's a list that starts out with family names and their common
equivalent and then lists quite a few plants - these are
'wildflowers'

http://www.delanet.com/~dgsmith/wildflowers/scientific.html

And, finally:

Where Do Plants Get Their Names From?
A Brief Anaylaia of the Origins of Common Plant Names
By Robyn Agnes Mulia

http://www.algonet.se/~davies/Robyn.htm

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@clark.net
Editor:  Gardening in Shade
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