A plant's botanical name, also called the binomial is made up of a genus and a species name.
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Most people find it so much easier to just use common names, names like White Cedar and Japanese Maple.
Common names might be easier to remember and pronounce and they might be beautifully descriptive – like Fountain Grass and Lily-of-the-Valley but they can end up causing confusion.
One common name might refer to many different plants and one plant might have many different common names.
Let’s look at a tree called Melia azedarach. One popular common name for this plant is the White Cedar – but that’s not all, it’s also known as Chinaberry Tree, Bead Tree, Pride of India, Cape Lilac, Persian Lilac, Indian Lilac and Texas Umbrella Tree.
The common name ‘Snow in Summer’ refers to at least two plants, Melaleuca linariifolia – a tree and Cerastium tomentosum which is a low growing herbaceous plant.
There’s no confusion when you use a plant's botanical name – and botanical names can also be a wealth of information and will often tell you something about the plant.
A plant identification class at Wodonga TAFE last week looked at a number of plants, two of these were Rosmarinus officinalis and Borago officinalis – Rosemary and Borage. As you can see – both species names are the same and the species name of officinalis refers to the plant's traditional use as a medicinal or a healing plant.
In class, we also looked at Persicaria odorata, the Vietnamese Mint/Coriander. The species name of odorata clearly explains the plant has a scent, break a leaf and have a smell, it’s really strong.
Botanical names can really tell you something about the plant and if you want a specific plant it’s important to know its precise botanical name, this will eliminate any confusion.
I strongly recommend that we all attempt to learn botanical names – because this is one of the most important things a gardener can do.