{"id":1433,"date":"2017-03-26T17:43:48","date_gmt":"2017-03-26T21:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/?page_id=1433"},"modified":"2020-10-19T19:53:48","modified_gmt":"2020-10-19T23:53:48","slug":"botanic-names-its-about-time","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-its-about-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Botanic Names: It\u2019s About Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Some plants\u2019 botanic names note activity at an unexpected time. So our Black Cherries that bloom and fruit later than cultivated cherries are named <em>Prunus serotina<\/em> (Prunus: Latin for plum; serotina: late) while the early-blooming Shooting Star is <em>Primula meadia<\/em> (prim: first, meadia: in honor of English physician Richard Mead, 1673-1754, formerly in the genus Dodecatheon, which means twelve gods, who were supposed to have primroses in their care.)<\/p>\n<p>Winter: The pleated leaves of Puttyroot, <em>Aplectrum hyemale<\/em> are visible on the forest floor all winter long (A: without; plectrum: spurs on the flowers; hyemale: of winter), though the flowers don\u2019t appear until late May, when the leaves are dying back for the summer. Ticklegrass or Winter Bentgrass, <em>Agrostis hyemalis, <\/em>is also green in the winter, blooms in the spring and goes dormant during summer heat. (Agrostis: Greek name of some grass, from agro: field.)<\/p>\n<p>Spring: We expect plants to grow and bloom in the spring, but \u201cverna\u201d as a specific epithet usually means that the plant gets going especially early. So the European <em>Draba verna<\/em>, Whitlow-grass, is sometimes called a winter annual, blooming in February-March. (Draba: acrid, ancient name of some cress.) The Early Winter-cress (also from Europe), <em>Barbarea verna<\/em>, can bloom in February. (Barbarea: herb of St. Barbara) We\u2019re all too familiar with the very invasive exotic Lesser Celandine, <em>Ficaria verna<\/em>, that starts blooming in March. (Ficaria: fig, for the tuberous roots.) Yes, there are some native plants named \u201cverna\u201d as well: <em>Iris verna<\/em>, Dwarf Coastal Plain Iris (Iris: Greek rainbow, though most of ours are blue or purple); <em>Myosotis verna<\/em>, Early Forget-me-not (myos: mouse; otis: ear, for the short, soft leaves of some species); Spring Avens, <em>Geum vernum<\/em>, lost its position as the earliest-blooming <em>Geum<\/em> species when Barren Strawberry, formerly <em>Waldsteinia fragarioides,<\/em> was renamed <em>Geum fragarioides<\/em> (Geum: ancient name of some plant; fragarioides: like fragaria, the strawberry). Then there are Spring Ladies-tresses, <em>Spiranthes vernalis<\/em>, (Spir: spirally twisting, anthes: flowers; most Spiranthes species bloom late in the summer) and Blue-eyed Mary, <em>Collinsia verna<\/em>, from Virginia\u2019s southern mountains (Collinsia: for Philadelphia botanist Zaccheus Collins, 1764-1831.)<\/p>\n<p>Summer: here the specific epithet is \u201caestivalis.\u201d Summer Grape, <em>Vitis aestivalis<\/em>, fruits in September-October, like most of our other grapes. Summer Sedge, <em>Carex aestivalis<\/em>, blooms when summer comes to its mountain heights: in May-June according to <em>Flora of Virginia<\/em>, or maybe June-August as <em>Flora of West Virginia<\/em> says.<\/p>\n<p>Autumn: The only familiar native plant with autumn in its botanic name is Common or Yellow Sneezeweed, <em>Helenium autumnale <\/em>(Helenium for Helen of Troy). It is the last of its genus to bloom. Explore farther, and you find Slender Fimbry, <em>Fimbristylis autumnalis<\/em>, an annual sedge that also has the latest bloom time of its genus (Fimbri: fringed; stylis: style: hand lens at least needed here!), and Slender Rattlesnake-root <em>Nabalus autumnalis<\/em> blooming September-November in the Coastal Plain, mostly south of the James River (Nabalus: possibly related to a Phoenician harp, <em>nablium<\/em> in Latin? I need someone to explain the connection to me. Formerly Prenanthes: Greek <em>prenes<\/em>: drooping; <em>anthe<\/em>: flower: now, drooping flowers I can see.)<\/p>\n<p>Other, more particular times get some mention: *Yellow Star Thistle is <em>Centaurea solstitialis<\/em> (associated with Chiron, the centaur, and the summer solstice). *Dame\u2019s Rocket is <em>Hesperis matrionalis<\/em> (mother of evening, for its fragrance that is released then; Hesperus was the west wind.) *Night-flowering Catchfly is Silene noctiflora (Silene being a mythical character covered in foam, referring to the mucus that catches flies.) And Nyctelea or Waterpod is <em>Ellisia nyctelea<\/em> (Ellisia in honor of English naturalist John Ellis, 1710-1776, nyctelea: nocturnal.)<\/p>\n<p>Margaret Chatham<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some plants\u2019 botanic names note activity at an unexpected time. So our Black Cherries that bloom and fruit later than cultivated cherries are named Prunus serotina (Prunus: Latin for plum; serotina: late) while the early-blooming Shooting Star is Primula meadia (prim: first, meadia: in honor of English physician Richard Mead, 1673-1754, formerly in the genus&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-1433","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: It\u2019s About Time - 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-its-about-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Botanic Names: It\u2019s About Time - VNPS Potowmack Chapter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some plants\u2019 botanic names note activity at an unexpected time. So our Black Cherries that bloom and fruit later than cultivated cherries are named Prunus serotina (Prunus: Latin for plum; serotina: late) while the early-blooming Shooting Star is Primula meadia (prim: first, meadia: in honor of English physician Richard Mead, 1673-1754, formerly in the genus&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-its-about-time\/\" \/>\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=\"3 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-its-about-time\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-its-about-time\/\",\"name\":\"Botanic Names: It\u2019s About Time - VNPS Potowmack Chapter\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-26T21:43:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-19T23:53:48+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-its-about-time\/\"]}]},{\"@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: It\u2019s About Time - 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-its-about-time\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Botanic Names: It\u2019s About Time - VNPS Potowmack Chapter","og_description":"Some plants\u2019 botanic names note activity at an unexpected time. So our Black Cherries that bloom and fruit later than cultivated cherries are named Prunus serotina (Prunus: Latin for plum; serotina: late) while the early-blooming Shooting Star is Primula meadia (prim: first, meadia: in honor of English physician Richard Mead, 1673-1754, formerly in the genus&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-its-about-time\/","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":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-its-about-time\/","url":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-its-about-time\/","name":"Botanic Names: It\u2019s About Time - VNPS Potowmack Chapter","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-03-26T21:43:48+00:00","dateModified":"2020-10-19T23:53:48+00:00","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/botanic-names-its-about-time\/"]}]},{"@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\/1433","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=1433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vnps.org\/potowmack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}