New common names

Since the pandemic started I’ve heard lots of people (including some of my friends and random people on the trail) call Cephalanthus occidentalis “Covid Plant”, presumably as a reference to the flowers. :D

Have you heard any other new common names recently?

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Here’s the flowers of the “Covid Plant”: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/66713583

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If anything, it should be called “Virus Plant” since a lot of viruses have spike proteins. However, I do not know if other plants have similar looking flowers.

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Well yeah but I can’t say them in public.

I’ve been changing and adding conmon names to some species from my zone (which doesn’t have any) and to do that I sometimes had to dig up some obscure documents (I had no idea that a common name for Stenomesson was “flor del clarín” and it translates to “clarionflower”) or use names that were used only in my town, city or region, for example Vasconcellea parviflora, which has the… rather curious name of “papaya del zorro” which translates to “fox’s papaya” due to its diminutive fruit; or “vichayo” the name of Beautempsia avicenniifolia, which hasn’t been changed because the species’ name had changed… pretty recently I think?

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