Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
rate this answer
Friday - September 02, 2011
From: Plainville, IL
Region: Midwest
Topic: General Botany
Title: Dictionary of botanical names
Answered by: Nan Hampton
QUESTION:
I am looking for an online resource that will tell me what the botanical names mean, for example, Cornus florida. Why is it named that? Surely somewhere there is information that explains the meaning of each. I have a list of botanical names I would like to look up. Thank you for your time and consideration.ANSWER:
Here are several sites with definitions of botanical names:
Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
Botanary on Dave's Garden webpage.
The Meaning of Latin Plant Names from the SeedSite.
This next link is a group of short biographies of people whose names appear in the botanical names of Eastern Sierra plants:
These last two links tells how the Latin names are formed:
Botanical Binomials — What Do Plant Names Mean?
What Scientific Names of Plants Mean
Finally, here are three excellent paper resources:
Gledhill, David. The Names of Plants. 4th edition. 2008. Cambridge University Press. Older editions often can be found at secondhand book stores.
Stearn, William. Botanical Latin. 4th edition. 2004. Timber Press.
Borror, Donald. Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms. 1960. McGraw-Hill.
More General Botany Questions
Native plants as accumulators of heavy metals in Texas
March 29, 2008 - I would like to know of any native plants that could be used as hyperaccumulaters of heavy metals in Texas.
view the full question and answer
A garlic plant with only one clove in Ft. Worth, TX?
August 08, 2011 - Is there a garlic that does not have cloves? I have been using what appears to be garlic from my garden and it is garlicy, hot and delicious. I have spent many hours online but cannot find this garlic...
view the full question and answer
Why plants grow in very hot or very cold areas from Edison NJ
October 06, 2013 - Why can some plants grow where very cold or very hot?
view the full question and answer
Source for DNA sequencing of Opuntia species
March 04, 2014 - Hi Mr. Smarty Plants,
I am trying to do a Opuntia speciation study, and rather just identifying the species by morphological comparison, I would also like to go a little deeper by comparing the DNA...
view the full question and answer
Source for records of Pleistocene flora of Central Texas
December 16, 2013 - Part of your answer to a question from October 12, 2010 is "..moreover, the evidence goes even further back than the 1800s. Studies of Pleistocene deposits from Central Texas showed ancestral cedar p...
view the full question and answer
| Support the Wildflower Center by Donating Online or Becoming a Member today. |