Dove’s-foot Crane’s-bill
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi — because the scientific name means “bear-grapes grape-bear.”
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Heavenly bamboo is particularly strange since it’s not a bamboo and doesn’t really strike me as “heavenly”
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The same can be said of Lucky Bamboo. I would say that it is especially unlucky because it led to the introduction of an invasive mosquito.
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Toquilla Palm – because, first, it isn’t a palm. Second, because I first knew it as Panama Hat Palm, and “Panama” hats are from Ecuador. Third, the genus name Carludovica means Charles-Louise, as it was named after King Carlos IV of Spain, and his queen Luisa.
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Plants get labelled with some weird common names quite often. My longtime favourite has been goutystalk nettlespurge for the species Jatropha podagrica, but today I discovered a new weird favourite - turkey tangle frogfruit for the species Phyla nodiflora.
What’s yours?
Lobularia maritima vs Heliotropium curassavicum
(reopened and posts merged from new topic)
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Gomphocarpus physocarpus, known as balloon plant on iNat has some very striking flowers and fruit. Taking a look at the taxonomy tab shows a bunch of very funny common names, at least in English. Here’s a link to what a local (to me) grower calls it.
Dracula vampira wins best scientific name
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I do think that some of the Australian plant names are quite odd. Lilly-pilly, for example. No relation to lilies.
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Lilly pilly!! I forgot about that one! I remember thinking the name was super funny/cute lol
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There used to be a counterpart thread for fungi names, but I think it has long since closed, and I don’t see it now.
Forest friend – Collybia dryophila. In what sense is it a friend? It isn’t one of the important edible mushrooms; on the contrary, according to the Peterson guide, “Reports vary. Not recommended – edible for some, but others are made ill by it.” And it is saprobic, so it wouldn’t be the trees’ friend either, in the way that a mycorrhizal species would be.
The story I’ve heard is that it started as “fogfruit” and then people felt like it needed an extra “r”—both “turkey tangle” and “fogfruit” referring to the plants growing in large, tangled mats, i.e. a fog of fruits rather than the fruits themselves being foggy.
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Struthiola ciliata: The lady that passes by in the night. I checked another source, just to make sure it wasn’t a troll-name.
What if there are two trolls? :-)
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