HERB - Re: Plant family naming

Gaylin Walli g.walli at infoengine.com
Thu May 14 08:26:27 PDT 1998


Mistress Agness deLanvallei wrote:
>I think its worse than changing because an author is free to use
>whichever one they prefer, driving you to two places in the index, not
>just one. [....] Its not that the system is illogical, exactly, its
>just the product of 400 years of work, and so, complex.

Agreed. It seems to me that part of this is the product of cultural
preference as well. When my father and I toured western europe and
later when my husband and I made a blindingly fast tour of London,
I was suprised of two things wrt gardens in Europe.

First, every Europen garden I visited labled the botanical name
first. If the common name was even listed, it was listed second
each and every time. In my experience, American gardens that
I've visited (mostly in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and
Wisconsin) have listed the common name first and if the botanical
is listed at all, it's listed second. Those that do list the
botanical are nearly all the same.

Second, between the gardens I viewed in West Germany, the Netherlands,
Belgium, and London (and Leeds), botanical names did not match.
In general, they were consistent within countries, but across
borders, they were different. One garden in, uhm... Naarden? in
the Netherlands was the sole exception to this rule that I saw.
It had two botanicals listed for some plants, possibly to account
for the renaming and reorganization. (It also had a stunning
Japanese maple from the early 1600's. WOW.)

>So Compositae is a correct family name for daisies, chamomile, tansy,
>marigolds, dandelion but so is Asteraceae (named as you see for
>_Aster_) The others are: grasses Poaceae or Gramineae, mints Lamiaceae
>or Labiatae, umbels (dill, parsnip) Apiaceae or Umbelliferae, and
>mustards (cabbage, broccoli) Brassicaceae or Cruciferae.

And in general, those you listed above were the ones in question that
I saw as we toured through various places. I wonder if this has changed
much recently (in the last 5-6 years). Can anyone from the other side
of the pond, down under, or in the Pacific Rim comment?

Incidently, the Culpepper Garden at Leeds Castle can afford you
with some fantastic pictures. I took at ton there, using up 2-3
of the cheap little drop-box cameras and they turned out to be the
best shots of the whole darn trip. I stood next to rosemary and
thyme plants that reached my chest (and I'm ~5'7").

Jasmine de Cordoba, Midrealm
jasmine at infoengine.com or g.walli at infoengine.com

"Si enim alicui placet mea devotio, gaudebo; si autem nulli placet,
memet ipsam tamen juvat quod feci." -- Hroswitha of Gandersheim
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