Page 14 - Simply Veg 3.21

Latin for Vegetable Growers
Why is it important that plants are named? Because they need to be accurately identified so that gardeners know
their characteristics and which plant is which. Whether they will fit in with the planting scheme or rotation, if they are poisonous or safe to eat. It is also useful
to know where the plants originate from geographically as this can affect how they are grown. Examples include japonica from Japan, chinensis from China, chiloense from Chile.
You should be careful of plants with the name macrantha as it may have spikes on the plant. If you want something with yellow foliage or flowers look for plants with aureus, aurea, lutea, lutescens or
sulphurea in their name as
this indicates something
yellow. There are other Latin
words for yellow as well.
So why are plants given Latin names and classified, basically so we know which plant is which and they can be correctly identified throughout the world. Knowing which plants are related helps to know if they may have uses and whether they may be attacked by similar pests and diseases. If only common names were used they would vary not only between different countries but different regions within countries. Even in the U.K we have different common names, the bluebell being a good example as it has at least 20 common names in the U.K. not only that but the bluebell of England is Hyacinthoides non-scripta but the bluebell of Scotland
is Campanula rotundifolia (no doubt our
Care should be taken with
plants that have officinalis in
its name as this indicates it
has some medical or herbal
use. Belladonna (Atropa
belladonna meaning beautiful
lady) was used in the past to
dilate the eye pupils which
makes them appear more
alluring! In the monasteries
the Officina was where the monks made medicines hence the epithet or species word officinale depicts plants used for medicines. Willows (Salix species) the bark was the origin of asprin (and is nowadays being proposed as a rooting hormone for cuttings – Ed)
Knowing what the Latin name means can help you in growing the plant in some cases but not always. It can also describe how the plant grows, repens means creeping such as the creeping buttercup Ranunculus repens or Elymus repens Couch grass or twitch).
Beetroot ‘Moneta’
Onion ‘White Lady’
different species of Solanum, so are fairly closely related (like brothers or sisters). Peppers are in the Solanaceae family but in the genus Capsicum so are not so closely related (more like cousins).
At this point I ought to explain how the naming system works for those who do not know, so it is more understandable. Ignoring the upper sections of the plant hierarchy and starting at family, this is a group of related plants with similar characteristic in common usually the flowers. If you look at the flowers of the cabbage, radish, rocket, swede they will look very similar although the colour may be white or yellow. If you look at the flowers of the aubergine, potato, tomato and the flowering shrub Solanum they are the same shape and colour except the tomato which is yellow.
Families are made up of a number of genus (plural genera) and the names ends in aceae, the first part of the name is usually one of the genus in the family so we have Solanaceae, Brassicaceae, Apiaceae and Rosaceae to name a few.
Within the family we have genus which
is the first part of Linnaeus binomial name, species being the second part. Taking Brassicaceae there are a number of vegetables in the Brassica genus these include mustards, Texsel greens, swede, rape, Chinese cabbage and turnip as well as the very closely related cabbage, cauliflower,
Care should be taken with plants that have officinalis in its name as this indicates it has some medical or herbal use
Scottish members will correct me if I am wrong!). The name bluebell is also used for at least 15 other unrelated plants in other English speaking parts of the world.
As a further example
the French have approx.
80 different names for the dandelion, but interestingly the Germans who have a few common names for the dandelion one of which is dent de lion – meaning lions
tooth from the shape of its leaves.
The reason Latin is used is that it was
the language of science when the Swedish botanist Linnaeus developed the binomial naming system (binomial meaning two names) back in the 1750’s. It is used throughout the world and enables us to communicate about the plants and be clearly understood to which plant we are referring.
The Latin name can show which plants are related for example aubergine, potato, tomato and Chilean potato tree are all
Celery ‘Granada’
Dwarf bean ‘Delinel’
14 Simply Vegetables
ROGER CLEMENTS AND KELVIN MASON