Got it! It’s called here South Solyanka (same word as soup), as australis stands for southern in latin and common names for plants tend to show it.
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Ha ha, thank you, never new that. I always assumed it meant “of Australia” :-)
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Interesting discussion. Part of the problem with “common names” is that the English word “common” itself has a variety of definitions, so what one person understands a “common name” to be, or what it should be, might differ from someone else’s understanding.
I always understood common, in the way it is used for common name, to mean familiar, ordinary, available for use by all … but not necessarily in widespread use (although it could also be that). A name that is easily understood since it is typically in the language of the user (as opposed to a scientific name which is not).
A member of the English-speaking public might have no idea what a Pituophis catenifer is, but if I tell them the animal in question is a Gopher Snake, they already have a working knowledge of what those two words mean, even if they’ve never heard of the species.
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That’s it’s meaning. It’s more or less the same context as a House of Commons In a Westminster type Parliament.
In the context of these discussions it’s just a little too hard to resist playing with the meaning and statements about uncommon common names are probably inevitable.
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I would also like to report the common name of Ficus caulocarpa. It seems that iNaturalist is the only platform which uses the name Shortleaf Fig for this species.
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/425613-Ficus-caulocarpa
I hope curators would see this and change it since this common name is very misleading as this species is known for its long leaves!
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The best thing to do in these situations is to add a flag to the taxon, found here on each taxon page:
I have deleted the common name Shortleaf Fig for this species.
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I agree with the Paloma
I was just now trying to figure out how to change a bird’s common name to what is best known in my region. It doesn’t seem like it’s possible. It would be great if I could decide which popular name is going to be displayed in my observation.
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If the name doesn’t exist yet, you can add it. Then you can flag the species to ask for the name to be changed for your region.
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I’m only part way through reading this dicussion but…
If the language is English and a plant occurs (either naturally or by introduction) across the Southern Hemisphere you can’t choose by language. Many common names entered as English (particularly in New Zealand and Southern Africa) reflect indigenous languages. These should not be first preference in Australia.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while. If we are all allowed to enter common names we should have to go beyond supposed language and enter region (voluntary now) and our name so others can discuss why this common name has been added.
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That is @bouteloua 's feature request
Allow us to choose common names for our own country
Choosing language is not adequate. Especially for lingua franca default English (any of the former colonial languages I guess)
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You don’t need it per country, you need it settable per region, for optimal display. For searching, existing in the database is fine.
but I would like to see the South African names - not what is used as a default wherever English is spoken.
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Yeah, that’s a ‘settable’ region. Y’all just need coverage, meaning a list of regions with enough resolution to cover most people’s preferences or a lot of variation in local names. Then, people can go set the names to their region, and that fixes for most people the display issue.
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