{"id":1425,"date":"2017-03-26T17:15:55","date_gmt":"2017-03-26T21:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/?page_id=1425"},"modified":"2020-10-19T19:53:48","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T23:53:48","slug":"botanic-names-theyre-all-greek-to-me","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-theyre-all-greek-to-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Botanic Names: They\u2019re All Greek to Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Well, not <i>all<\/i>, but while we often speak of botanic names as \u201cLatin names,\u201d they are derived from many sources, and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Greek is well-represented. So for example Twinleaf is <i>Jeffersonia diphylla,<\/i> for Jefferson\u2019s plant with two (di) leaves (phylla) \u2013 Latin would have been something like \u201cbifolia.\u201d Or Mayapple is <i>Podophyllum peltatum<\/i> for foot (podos) leaf (phyllon) shaped like a small shield (pelte). Latin uses the same pelta for shield, but the genus name in Latin would have come out closer to \u201cpefolium.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Yellowroot is <i>Xanthorhiza simplicissima<\/i> (simplicissima is Latin for simplest, meaning unbranched: I always wondered what was so simple about this very frilly-leaved plant). Latin for \u201cyellow\u201d is lutea, as in <i>Passiflora lutea,<\/i> passionflower with yellow blossoms, and Latin for \u201croot\u201d is \u201cradic-\u201c as in radish, eradicate or <i>Toxicodendron radicans: <\/i>poison tree (from Greek by way of Latin) with rootlets: poison ivy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Of course, the Greek alphabet doesn\u2019t correspond perfectly with the Latin-based alphabet we use. So that same \u201cyellow\u201d that was \u201cxantho\u201d in yellowroot is rendered \u201czantho\u201d in prickly ash\u2019s botanic name of <i>Zanthoxylem americanum<\/i>: yellow-wood from America.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And think back to the Greek letter \u201cchi\u201d when pronouncing <i>Chionanthus<\/i> <i>virginica<\/i>, fringetree: snow (chion) flower (anthos) from Virginia, or <i>Chrysopsis mariana,<\/i> Maryland golden-aster: gold (chrys) appearing (opsis) from Maryland. Sometimes that confusing \u201ch\u201d disappears, and you get names like \u201cCalycanthus\u201d meaning cup (calyx: think chalice) flower. Rearrange some of these pieces, and you see that \u201cChrysanthemum\u201d comes from Greek for golden flower and \u201cHelianthus\u201d is indeed sunflower. \u201cHydrophyllum\u201d is waterleaf, while \u201cRhododendron\u201d means rose-tree, and \u201cLiriodendron\u201d means tulip (or lily) tree.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">No, learning to translate Greek-derived botanic names won\u2019t get you very far if you visit Greece, but perhaps you can feel a little more comfortable with some of those dreaded \u201cLatin names\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Margaret Chatham<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, not all, but while we often speak of botanic names as \u201cLatin names,\u201d they are derived from many sources, and\u00a0 Greek is well-represented. So for example Twinleaf is Jeffersonia diphylla, for Jefferson\u2019s plant with two (di) leaves (phylla) \u2013 Latin would have been something like \u201cbifolia.\u201d Or Mayapple is Podophyllum peltatum for foot (podos)&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18589,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"tpl-sidebar.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1425","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Botanic Names: They\u2019re All Greek to Me - VNPS Potowmack Chapter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-theyre-all-greek-to-me\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Botanic Names: They\u2019re All Greek to Me - VNPS Potowmack Chapter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Well, not all, but while we often speak of botanic names as \u201cLatin names,\u201d they are derived from many sources, and\u00a0 Greek is well-represented. So for example Twinleaf is Jeffersonia diphylla, for Jefferson\u2019s plant with two (di) leaves (phylla) \u2013 Latin would have been something like \u201cbifolia.\u201d Or Mayapple is Podophyllum peltatum for foot (podos)&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-theyre-all-greek-to-me\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"VNPS Potowmack Chapter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/vnpspot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-19T23:53:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@vnpspot\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-theyre-all-greek-to-me\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-theyre-all-greek-to-me\/\",\"name\":\"Botanic Names: They\u2019re All Greek to Me - VNPS Potowmack Chapter\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-26T21:15:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-19T23:53:48+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-theyre-all-greek-to-me\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/\",\"name\":\"VNPS Potowmack Chapter\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Botanic Names: They\u2019re All Greek to Me - VNPS Potowmack Chapter","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-theyre-all-greek-to-me\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Botanic Names: They\u2019re All Greek to Me - VNPS Potowmack Chapter","og_description":"Well, not all, but while we often speak of botanic names as \u201cLatin names,\u201d they are derived from many sources, and\u00a0 Greek is well-represented. So for example Twinleaf is Jeffersonia diphylla, for Jefferson\u2019s plant with two (di) leaves (phylla) \u2013 Latin would have been something like \u201cbifolia.\u201d Or Mayapple is Podophyllum peltatum for foot (podos)&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-theyre-all-greek-to-me\/","og_site_name":"VNPS Potowmack Chapter","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/vnpspot\/","article_modified_time":"2020-10-19T23:53:48+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@vnpspot","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-theyre-all-greek-to-me\/","url":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-theyre-all-greek-to-me\/","name":"Botanic Names: They\u2019re All Greek to Me - VNPS Potowmack Chapter","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-03-26T21:15:55+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-19T23:53:48+00:00","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-theyre-all-greek-to-me\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/#website","url":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/","name":"VNPS Potowmack Chapter","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18589"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}