Botanical Names

Why use botanical names when common names are so much easier to pronounce and remember?  Basically, the botanical naming system began to provide different plants with a name that can be recognized by anyone, no matter what country they are from or what language they speak.

 

Botanical names aren’t actually Latin names.  They’re based on Latin grammar, but botanical names come from any country and can honour places and people and may be derived from common names from those countries.

 

Botanical names also help in finding the correct plant. Common names tend to be used for more than one plant.  For instance, bluebell  can refer to Hyacinthoides non-scripta, Campanula or Mertensia.  So, often we don’t end up with the plant we were looking for if the common name is used.

 

Here are a few websites to help with botanical names.  Feel free to add to the list.

 

www.plantpress.com/dictionary.html - The Plant Press Dictionary of Common Names....look up common name to latin or latin to common name.

http://www.winternet.com/~chuckg/dictionary.html - Dictionary of Botanical Epithets - Meanings of botanical terms.

http://the-garden-gate.org/botrts.php#top - Roots of botanical names and their meanings

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/htbg/module2/plant_names4.shtml   BBC learning