 Growing Gardens
with Anita Morton
Name that plant
Many gardeners have trouble remembering the botanical or 'Latin' names of plants,
and that's not surprising, when those names are just a meaningless collection
of sounds to most of us. Blame Carl von Linné, or Linnaeus as he is commonly
known, who was single-handedly responsible for developing the formal naming system
known as binomial nomenclature. This is the system we still use 250 years later.
In binomial nomenclature, each species of plant (and animal, insect, bacterium,
etc) has two names; the genus, such as Lycopersicon, and the species, esculentum,
for example. This gives us Lycopersicon esculentum, which is derived from Latin
- Lycopersicon means 'wolf peach', and esculentum means 'good to eat'. So the
tomato is wolf peach that is good to eat - a bit confusing, I must admit!
If I were to travel to Italy and ask for a tomato, I'd be met with a blank
look, and exactly the same thing would happen in every other non-English-speaking
country. If I asked for Lycopersicon esculentum, and the waiter had a smattering
of botanical knowledge, I'd get a tomato wherever I was. That is the great advantage
of the system - the botanical name never changes, whatever the local name may
be. Also, although several plants may have the same common name, they will all
have different botanical names.
I inadvertently demonstrated the virtue of this a couple of weeks ago, when
my column on eradicating onion weed was published with a photo of Asphodelus fistulosis
- which is indeed an 'onion weed', but not the one I meant. If I had included
the correct botanical name - Nothoscordum gracile - that wouldn't have happened,
and we would all have known what I was talking about. So we should all pay tribute
to Linnaeus, the man who created order out of chaos - and try to come to grips
with his naming system.
Lismore Garden Club News
The Lismore Garden Club's June social outing is on next Tuesday, June 14. It's
a mystery morning outing. We will congregate at 53 Kruseana Avenue, Goonellabah,
at 9am. A fun morning is guaranteed and visitors are most welcome.
A spectacular large white shrub that is in flower around our area at the moment
is commonly called the snow flake shrub (euphoria leucocephala.), which is a native
of central America. Our climate is obviously very suitable for it, as it is very
easy to grow around the Northern Rivers. Being a deciduous shrub it would be ideal
to plant on the north west or western side of the house. The snow flake shrub
is in stock in most local nurseries at present.
Winter is the very best season to tackle those garden projects that have been
on the back burner for a while. The weather is perfect for working outside. What
about that shadehouse that you have been wanting for years? Or that bog garden,
fish pond, garden arch or just a bird bath and feeder. Seasonal garden jobs: Feed
seedlings with half strength Aquasol liquid fertiliser. Pick up fallen fruit and
sterilise with boiling water before placing in bin. Prune roses in frost-free
areas or wait until July in frosty areas. Plant winter lawn seed in bare patches.
Lift and divide and replant daylilys or cut off all foliage. They will flower
much better.
Finally: "In all things of nature there is something marvellous."
(Aristotle.)
Happy gardening
Ron Burns
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