If you are a gardener, you might recognize the title as a statement of a much more practical problem: researching a plant by its name. Plant names come in two flavors: scientific and common. And, of course, any given plant can have more than one common name. Let's say you know the name of a plant, so in theory you can look it up. But unless you know whether you have the common or scientific name you'll be sorely taxed to locate the appropriate reference. Should you consult a scientific name index or a common name index? Adding to the complexity is the fact that every scientific plant name has two parts: one part is the genus name and the other is the species. Unless you know both parts (and know which part is genus and which is species) you'll be hard pressed to locate a reference. What's a gardener to do?
One skill that is useful in understanding plant nomenclature is to be able to discern which part(s) of the name you have. The article, "Genus, Species, and Cultivars, Oh My?" published in Dave's Garden provides some easy-to-apply guidelines for identifying plant name categories. Especially helpful for those of use whose eyes glazed over during lectures on Biological Classifications in our school days science classes. The author also provides reasons why we "really ought wanna" know about this stuff! Not the least of which is that it can help us use Daves Garden PlantFiles Search feature (and any other search or index) more effectively. Isn't that clever! Maybe now you'd like to read, "Genus, Species, and Cultivars, Oh My?"
Other searchable resources: Floridata and Solutions for Your Life.
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