A Pennsylvania Plant Geek's Garden
We’re finally seeing a few signs of the growing season starting here in Pennsylvania, but there are still several more days before spring officially arrives, so I’ll indulge now in one of my favorite winter topics: botanical nomenclature. One subject I haven’t covered yet… Continue Reading “What’s in a Name? Body Talk”
It’s the season for studying seed catalogs and seed-exchange lists, which always gets me thinking about how fascinating botanical names can be. For this part of my What’s in a Name? series, I’ve collected a bunch of epithets that relate to mammals. Sometimes, these… Continue Reading “What’s in a Name? Let’s Get Animal”
Asclepias speciosa (showy milkweed) Ready for another ramble through the wonderful world of botanical nomenclature? This time, let’s look at names that relate to…well, let’s call them value judgments – not specific traits like leaf shape, flower color, or geographic origin, but more subjective… Continue Reading “What’s in a Name? The Good, the Bad, and the Ordinary”