A Gardener's Latin: The language of plants explained (National Trust Home & Garden)

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This data can be used for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. Let’s learn more about the meaning of Latin plant names with this short but sweet botanical nomenclature guide. I find his approach down to earth, (no pun intended), while his knowledge of the growing of fruit and vegetables is extensive. This third name may represent the developer of the cultivar, location of origin or hybridization, or a specific unique characteristic.

Unlike its common name (of which there may be several), the Latin name for a plant is unique to each plant.While it's fine to use common names such as lady's mantle, poppy or heather, these can cause confusion, even within the same geographical area. is a plant that has a minor difference to the species, such as leaf colour, flower colour or fruit, that occurs in the wild, such as a population of wild flowers in which a significant contingent are a different colour.

As a novice I joined this group thinking I would just read the tips and hints on growing fruit and vegetables. From Middle French jardin, from Old French jardin, from Medieval Latin jardinus ( “ garden ” ), from Old Frankish *gardin, oblique case of *gardō ( “ enclosure, yard ” ) (compare also Old French jart ( “ garden ” )), from Proto-Germanic *gardô ( “ enclosure, garden, house ” ), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰordʰos ( “ hedge, enclosure ” ), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ- ( “ court, yard ” ). To view the purposes for which they believe they have a legitimate interest, or to object to this data processing, please use the vendor list link below. Roses, strawberries, apples, and hawthorn are members of the Rosaceae family and tomatoes, potatoes, chillies and deadly nightshade all belong to the Solanaceae family. Stefan has a practical no nonsense approach to gardening, obviously based on many years of experience in horticulture, and particularly vegetable growing.Cognate with West Frisian gard, Low German Goorn, Dutch gaard, gaarde, German Garten, French jardin, Spanish jardín, Italian giardino, Sicilian jardinu. org), a collaboration between The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; The Harvard University Herbaria, and The Australian National Herbarium.

Linnaeus’ International Code of Botanical Nomenclature dictates that a plant name start with a capitalized genus, followed by a lower-case species, then either a variety (if naturally occurring), cultivar (if created by a breeder) or hybrid name (if it’s a cross between two plants, indicted by an “x”). And they aren’t so difficult to understand once you remember many words we use everyday come from Latin.It represents a group of plants with similar characteristics - all the plants in the genus will share a recent common ancestor and look similar to each other.

The difference between the two nomenclatures being, that in Latin plant names the genus is listed first and is always capitalized. He is never afraid to say if he isn't familiar with a particular topic, but always has some relevant facts to pass on. This could be a result of deliberate breeding, or it may be a lucky accident in the garden or nursery. So where a plant has the word orientalis as part of its Latin name you’ll recognise it’s something to do with the orient or east. There were lovely ices [… ] with every kind of cream cake, of sandwich, of éclair, and peaches, muscat grapes, and nectarines.The final -in derives either from the Frankish inflected form *gardin or is a Romance diminutive of * gard (compare Old French jart alongside jardin, Medieval Latin gardinus).