To better help you find and identify the flowers in your area, I list both the common name and the scientific name in the tittle.
As you may know, a single plant can have one or many common names, depending on the area where you live. So this is not a very good way to identify a plant. So, we have scientific names. The one name that everyone can agree on. No matter who you are talking to, they will recognize that name and know exactly what plant you are referring to. Right? Wrong!!! A single plant can have as many different scientific names as it has common names.
Bummer, now what can we do.
From this point forward, I will be referencing the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) for my scientific name. Here is a quote from their website;
“The ITIS program is driven by a mission: communicate a comprehensive taxonomy of global species that enables biodiversity information to be discovered, indexed, and connected across all human endeavors.
To achieve our mission we partner with specialists from around the world to assemble scientific names and their taxonomic relationships, and distribute that data through publicly available software. The result we seek is a complete, current, literature-referenced, and expert validated digital taxonomy that is open so it can be delivered and integrated into biological data management systems across the world.”
Yay, one scientific name we can all rely on. Not so fast there Carolus Linnaeus. Even ITIS sometimes list more than one scientific name as accepted! For instance;
Samolus L. – accepted – waterpimpernel, brookweed
Samolus alyssoides A. Heller – not accepted
Samolus cuneatus Small – not accepted
Samolus ebracteatus Kunth – accepted – bractless brookweed, Mojave water pimpernel, limewater brookweed
Samolus ebracteatus ssp. alyssoides (A. Heller) R. Knuth – not accepted – limewater brookweed
Samolus ebracteatus ssp. cuneatus (Small) R. Knuth – not accepted – limewater brookweed
Samolus ebracteatus ssp. ebracteatus Kunth – not accepted – limewater brookweed
Samolus ebracteatus var. alyssoides (A. Heller) Henrickson – not accepted
Samolus ebracteatus var. cuneatus (Small) Henrickson – not accepted
Samolus floribundus Kunth – not accepted
Samolus parviflorus Raf. – not accepted – seaside brookweed, water-pimpernel
Samolus vagans Greene – accepted – Chiricahua Mountain brookweed
Samolus valerandi L. – accepted – seaside brookweed
Samolus valerandi ssp. parviflorus (Raf.) Hultén – not accepted – seaside brookweed, water brookweed, smallflower water pimpernel
Samolus valerandi ssp. valerandi L. – not accepted – seaside brookweed
Whew! Who knew? This plant will post this week. How do I choose? I picked one of the accepted scientific names (Samolus valerandi L.) and most of the common names. So, if you have been using a different scientific name and wonder why I use this one. Now you know! For better or worse! Happy Trails… George
