The Variegated Thumb

I’m one of those people that tries to use the botanical names of plants.  I also know many of the common names for my plants, but many of my plants are not widely grown and therefore have not been given common names.  Anyway, I’m not writing this post to debate the merits of either common or botanical naming systems.  I’m simply going to talk about pronouncing the botanical names.  Pronouncing common names is almost always easy, since they are just a collection of English words with which most people are already familiar.

However, many botanical names you have seen but never heard.  And since they are usually Latin-based, it is often hard to know how to pronounce them.  I have been embarrassed on a couple of occasions when I pronounced something very different from someone at the greenhouse (also at the aquarium store).  In one case, I was new to the aquarium hobby and had just been reading about a bunch of different fish I might want to put in my first aquarium.  My wife and I had been referring to the ever-so-common algae-eating fish Plecostomus as “ple-coh-STOH-moos.”  The correct pronunciation is actually “pleh-CAH-steh-muss,” which flows off the tongue so much more easily.

After some of my embarrassing pronunciation encounters, I got to thinking that I wasn’t necessarily wrong.  The worker might have been sitting at home thinking how embarrassed they were that a customer had pronounced the name correctly and they had always pronounced it differently.  This definitely wasn’t the case for Plecostomus, but it might be in some other situations.  If we don’t use the names in converstation with others, how are we ever to know the correct way of saying the names?  Don’t you worry – I did some research and found some good sources for correct pronunciations of botanical names.

Many online dictionaries have a little sound graphic next to the word you just looked up that will actually have a 2 or 3 second sound bite of someone saying the word.  And nearly all of the dictionaries will have the written pronunciation.  The drawback to using online dictionaries is that many botanical names are not listed in these dictionaries.

One place that you can almost always find your plant listed is on Dave’s Garden.  Dave’s Garden includes a written pronunciation of all genera and most species names.

Here are some specific names that I found on Dave’s Garden:

• Heuchera (HEW-ker-uh) – genus of the popular shade plants “Coral Bells”
• Clematis (KLEM-uh-tis or kli-MAT-is) – genus of very popular flowering, climbing perennial vines hear it
• Liriope (luh-RYE-uh-pee) – genus of common ground covers, sometimes called “Lily Turf” or “Monkey Grass” hear it
• Rudbeckia (rud-BEK-ee-a) – genus which contains “Black-Eyed Susans” and other perennial wildflowers hear it
• Gaillardia (gay-LAR-dee-uh) – genus of common wildflowers sometimes referred to as “Indian Blanket”
• Echinacea (ek-in-AY-shee-a) – genus which contains the common coneflowers hear it
• Ipomoea (ip-oh-MEE-a) – genus which contains both the popular “Morning Glories” and ornamental “Sweet Potato Vines,” as well as some other plants I enjoy growing “Cypress Vine” and “Spanish Flag”
• Chlorophytum (kloh-roh-FY-tum) – genus which contains “Spider Plants,” “Airplant Plants”
• Justicia (jus-TEE-see-ah) – genus which includes the “Shrimp Plants”
• Chamaedorea (ky-mee-DOR-ee-uh) – genus of palms, some of which are kept as houseplants – including the “Neanthe Bella Palm” and “Parlor Palm”
• Phalaenopsis (fay-lay-NOP-sis) – genus that contains the most commonly seen orchids, referred to as “Moth Orchids” hear it
• Ctenanthe (TEE-nan-thee) – a rare genus and favorite of mine from the prayer plant family
• Calathea (ka-LAY-thee-uh) – a common genus from the prayer plant family
• Stromanthe (stroh-MAN-thee) – a rare genus from the prayer plant family
• Araceae (a-RAY-see-ee) – the family commonly referred to as “Aroids”
• Rhaphidophora (ra-fid-OH-for-a) – a genus in the Aroid family

One quick observation: I’m noticing that the “ch” combination is almost always pronounced as a “k” in plant genera.  There are exceptions to every rule, but the “k” sounds seems to be the standard.  It’s easy for me to use the “k” sound for names like Chlorophytum, but I want to use the “ch” sound for names like Heuchera.

I’ve had to make the most adjustments for Ctenanthe (I was trying to incorporate the leading “C” into the name) and Liriope (which I was pronouncing “leer-EE-ope”).  I like the true pronunciation of Liriope much better than what I was saying.

The pronunciation with the most controversy that I encountered is Rudbeckia.  There were two sound bites for this name.  One sounds like “red-BEK-ee-a” and the other sounds like “RUDE-bek-ee-a.”  I was really surprised by the “red” beginning to the one sound bite.  Additionally, I ran across a sign at a local nursery that said this name is easy to remember by memorizing the phrase “Susan has a black eye because rude Becky hit her.”  (The “Black-Eyed Susan” species is R. hirta.)  The Dave’s Garden pronunciation is a little different from all of these other options.  Good luck with that one!

Are there any plant names you’ve always wondered how to say?

On the last day of 2008, I posted nine planty resolutions for 2009.  I thought I’d let you know how I’m doing.

1. Post at the rate of 2-3 times per week. This has gone very well.  Since January 1, 2009 I have posted 54 times.  That is an average of 2.5 posts per week.  Pretty good, huh?  I managed to post at least twice each week, as I had planned.  February was the most active month, with 13 posts.  I never really ran out of material for posting, but I did have some trouble having time to write on occasion.  While on vacation to Hawaii last week, I used the post scheduler to update my blog with 2 pre-written posts.
2. Review about 1 plant book per month. I have done pretty well with this task.  In March, I sort of cheated by only posting a quoted passage and couple of sentences about a plant book.
   • January: Tempting Tropicals by Ellen Zachos
   • February: Toki No Hana translated by Barry Yinger
   • March: Planthropology by Ken Druse
   • April: Oklahoma Gardener’s Guide by Steve Dobbs
   • May: The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean
3. Write a “trip report” about once per month. This is probably my favorite category of post to write.  Whenever I visit someplace that has plants, there is usually so much to write about that I have to contain myself.  This has been a very exciting category for 2009.  Although I didn’t post a trip report during the month of March, I posted twice during each of the last two months. Here’s the list:
   • January: TLC Florist and Greenhouses
   • February: Oklahoma City Myriad Gardens in bloom
   • March: (none)
   • April: Spring Festival at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens, Muskogee Azalea Festival
   • May: Exotic Rainforest in Siloam Springs, Akatsuka Orchid Gardens

With my recent trip to Hawaii, I have a couple more trip posts planned for the next month.  I also have another couple post-inspiring trips for this summer and fall.  Stay tuned for more Trip Reports from The Variegated Thumb!

4. Write a “project” post once per month. I should have said “about” for this goal.  Regardless, I almost met my goal for this category but fell short in the last month.  I did post three different times in this category during April, though.  I had a post planned for May on starting pineapple bromeliads from a grocery store pineapple.  But my newest pineapple has not yet sprouted roots in time to get the pictures for publishing the post.  Stay tuned for that post in June!
   • January: Hypertufa pots
   • February: My little Jade Bonsai
   • March: Staghorn bark basket
   • April: Backyard Fencing Project, Short-term planning for the Corner Garden, Long term planning for a “Paradise Corner”
   • May: (none)
5. Start a collection of Asarums. I had hoped to find some Asarum splendens plants at our local Atwoods store, but they did not have these plants this year as they have the last two years.  Alas, my Asarum collection must wait until the late Summer or early Fall when I place an order from Asiatica Nursery.  My plan is to order 5 or 6 species/varieties.  I saved this project for Fall because these plants will do well in my house over winter and that allows me to use my plant allowance elsewhere this summer.
6. Grow some of my own food. I am in the growing process right now.  So far nothing looks like food, but the plants seem to be healthy, so hopefully I will have some produce in a month or two.  This year we planted potatoes (new for us), yellow straightneck squash (new to us), zucchini squash (new to us), tomatoes (old hat) and broccoli (new to us).  Actually we planted broccoli last year but it was eaten by caterpillars in a matter of days.  This time around it has lasted at least a month.  And our tomato planting is different this year, as we’re using a “Topsy-Turvy” to grow them.  The device was a gift from my granddad and is actually very handy, as it can be hung on our front porch in the full sun.  Our planting location last year was probably shadier than the tomato plants would prefer.
7. Vigorously plant front “figure 8″ bed. For now, I have to say that I have failed miserably to accomplish this task.  The goal was to plant a lot of ornamental sweet potato vine in the figure 8 tulip bed in our front yard as soon as the tulips had quit blooming.  The hope was that the sweet potato vine would be in the ground when we get all of our mild weather and gallons and gallons of spring rains.  Then it would spread nicely and have filled out the bed by the time the tulip stems turned brown and are removed.  I have now removed the tulip stems and still not planted the sweet potato vine.  I have to admit that if we hadn’t gone on vacation last week, this task might be complete.  Alas, Hawaii was calling out to us!
8. Fertilize. I have had a bag of fertilizer sitting in my garage for more than a year.  It was just a matter of using it.  This Spring, as I brought all of my tender tropical plants outdoors, I added some slow-release fertilizer to the soil and watered it in.  It will be a while before I can tell if (and to what extent) the fertilizer has helped.  I did not fertilize any of our food plants, but I have fertilized nearly everything else that I am growing.  It was very quick and easy to lightly shake some of this fertilizer on the soil surface of each of my plants.
9. Recreate the corner garden. This task has gone swimmingly!  I have posted a couple of times about new plants we have added to our corner garden, as well as several plans for future enhancements.  The corner garden is the foundation for making our backyard a comfortable paradise where we can relax at home.  Our fencing project has also helped to create a more inviting feel to our backyard.

Did you make any resolutions this year concerning your plants?  How have you kept up with them?