Questions

Q: How Do Flowers get their Names

A: Flowers, just like all other plants, have both common and Latin names. The Latin ones are universal worldwide and are basically composed of a genus name, followed by a species name (and then often cultivar or variety names). These Latin names aren't nearly so perplexing if you know a bit about their derivation.

Many names are descriptive. They may refer to color such as "xantho" or yellow, "virens" or green, "nigra" or black, or "alba" or white. You may see a word, too, such as "lac" meaning milk and referring to white. (Lactuca or lettuce is named for the milky white sap.)

Color words may be combined with plant parts such as "canthus" or spine, not to be confused with "anthus" or flower. "Carpus" refers to fruit and "rhizus" to root. Combined you might have "xanthorhizus" or yellow root, rubrifolia or red leaves, lactiflorus or white flowered.

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