What’s in a name?

Press, 8 May 1980, Page 16

What’s in a name?

ily, the Umbelliferae, whereas the angelica tree is an aralai — not to be confused with the common aralia belong to the although both fatsia and aralia belong to the sasarsaparilla family. Confused? I haven’t even started yet.

Last spring, when writing about irises, I was roundly taken to task by an expert for putting out misleading information.; What I described as Iris ensata, the expert said, was almost certainly Iris biglumis, formerly known as ensata. In a sense we were both right, because although what I described (from a reference book; my seedlings had not, at that stage, flowered) was indeed Iris biglumis. The plant in my garden is Iris ensata all right, although it is better known to most gardeners as Iris kaempteri. which according to the latest information, has never been a valid name.

Iris ensata was the name given to it in 1794 by the famous botanist Thunberg who must have been thoroughly confused himself, because he is credited with having given the same name to Iris biglumis in the same year, 1794. Where the “kaempteri” came from I know not, but for generations Iris biglumis was known to gardeners as Iris ensata, and Iris ensata was Iris kaempteri. ft ft ft The iris family is hopelessly bound up with taxonomi confusions. The winter-flowering Algerian iris for many years was known, and very appropriately, as Iris stylosa, a name descriptive of the flower. Then someone discovered an earlier description of the plant, and the International Rules (under which ' the first validly described name became the only valid name for any plant, however inappropriate it may be) took over, and Iris stylosa became the tongue-twist-ing Iris unguicularis, from which it has never really recovered.

There is a dwarf form of this iris, from Crete. It used to be known as Iris cretenais, and is still sold by some nurseries under this name. But there is another little iris, an even smaller one also native to Crete, and it .transpires that this was validly named "Iris cretensis.” So the garden iris now be-

comes Iris unguicularis var. cretica. But some authorities maintain that the “true,” Iris cretica is in fact Iris cretensis. Still confused? You ain’t heard nothin’ yet. ft ft ft The “kaempferi” irises are a group of largeflowered moisture-loving irises, some hybrids and some the result of generations of selective breeding that have far removed them from their wild prototypes. The Japanese have a number of names for them, according to the number of petals, the shape and size of the flower and their geographic origin. The “higo” types, with large flat flowers, are the most common here. Some gardeners call them “Japanese irises,” and this can lead to con* fusion with Iris japonica, an evergreen (higo irises are deciduous) woodland species with pale lavender, butterfly-like flowers in spring. Some people call this the “Japanese butterfly iris,” but there is aonther butterfly iris, Iris dichotoma, flowering in late summer; and whereas Iris japonica likes this woodland, dichotoma likes light soil and full sun. The taxonomists have decided that it is not really an iris at all, and it now languishes in solitary confinement in a new genus all its own: Pardanthopsis dichotoma. Still confused? Then pity the poor forester. Pinus radiata, the most common tree in the country, was known as Pinus insignis when it was first imported from California. Did “insignis” mean it was a small tree? Not a bit of it.

"Insignis” in botanical language has no con-, nection with It means just the opposite; remarkable, outstanding, imposing. Most foresters would agree that this, is a much more appropriate name than “radiata” (raylike; it refers to the arrangement of the needles.) But radiata came first, so radiata it is. Then there is the Douglas fir, confusingly known in the timber trade as “Oregon pine.” This tree arguably the world's largest (a specimen felled and milled in the nineteenth century topped the biggest known living tree, a 361 ft Sequoiadendron, by some 20ft), has jumped ■St

around from one genus to another over the , years, and no longer even bears the name of David Douglas, the man who introduced it to Europe. The Douglas, fir is now Pseudotsuga menziesii, a name which hardly qualifies as an aid to clarification. “Pseudotsuga” means “like a tsnga,” but there is really no striking resemblance between the tsnga, and the Douglas fir, other than that both are large North American coniferous trees with awlshaped needles.; The Americans muddle up things rather more by calling the tsngas “hem-

lock trees,” a most odd state of affairs. -Hemlock is the infamous European weed (related, incidentally, to angelica) which bought the career of Socrates to an abrupt end. The Americans’ “hemlock trees” have no resemblance to true hemlock and no relationship with it — other than the fact that both are plants. All of which is enough to make the mildest of gardeners curse these misleading “common” names and yearn for a few more of these good, clean, oldfashioned botanical names, like aspidistra, anemone, altroemeria, dahlia, erica, fuchsia, hydrangea, rhododendron, and so on and so on. At least they do no change — yet.