Wiki offers 2 versions for the Jerusalem in artichoke. No idea if either is convincing?
Italian settlers in the United States called the plant girasole, the Italian word for sunflower, because of its familial relationship to the garden sunflower (both plants are members of the genus Helianthus ). Over time, the name girasole (pronounced closer to [dʒiraˈsuːlə] in southern Italian dialects) was corrupted to Jerusalem.[15][16][17] An alternative explanation for the name is that the Puritans, when they came to the New World, named the plant with regard to the “New Jerusalem” they believed they were creating in the wilderness
Because scientific names are not correctable like this, only for orthographic mistakes. If the original author made a mistake as to where the organism came from, that will be it for good.
What, more lost “Chinese” species? In California we make fun of our endemic Simmondsia chinensis. Legend has it the handwriting was so bad on the pressed specimen the illegible “californica” was mistaken to say “chinensis”
London Plane Trees are ornamental trees that were probably developed in Spain by breeding Chinese Sycamores and likely crossing them with American Sycamores. My wife planted a tree for our anniversary. She had some issues getting the nursery to make sure our sycamore was a native tree.
Some fringe cases I find interesting are that neither Nashville nor Tennessee Warblers are known to breed in Tennessee. Neither are Connecticut Warblers known to breed in CT or Cape May Warblers in NJ. They are known to migrate past those places. Our ubiquitous Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is obviously not named for it’s most common subspecies but rather one with a range that only includes parts of the Greater Antilles. Prairie Warblers don’t live in prairies. Palm Warblers don’t live in palms. Winter Wrens and Summer Tanagers obviously have homes outside of those seasons. Oh, bird names! One of the few groups with official English names and so many are so bad.
There’s a lot of species inexplicably named after Jerusalem that are both not native to, and not found anywhere remotely near Jerusalem! Jerusalem crickets (Stenopelmatini) immediately spring to mind (all North American species), as do Jerusalem cherries, Jerusalem beetles (horned passalus)… I wonder what drives this specific naming convention! I actually don’t know if I’ve ever seen any organism native to Jerusalem or even Israel or the broad region that has “Jerusalem” in the common name.
Well, I have something similar but kind of opposite: Zenaida asiatica, the white-winged dove. It’s native to North America but ‘‘asiatica’’ is particularly tricky because in Spanish that word means ‘‘Asian’’, or ‘‘from Asia’’.
My understanding is there was confusion over where the type specimen came from, hence the “asiatica” name which was way off from the collection locality. But we are stuck with it.
There are many similar names that have changed and mostly with good reason but remember these are just “common names” and most species have quite a few of those depending on where you live. The birding world has “official” common names which really means suggested names for consistency but other taxa - well, you can call them what you like. It’s the scientific names that define the species.
Northern Cardinal-where’s the Southern Cardinal?
Herring Gull-Definitely not found in Argentina as the epithet states(Larus argentatus)
Savannah Sparrow-Not found in the Sandwich Islands(Passerculus sandwichiensis)
Dunlin-They are almost always found near water, especially beaches. Not in the Arctic or mountainous terrain(Calidris alpina)
Philadelphia Vireo- Not found in Philadelphia
Connecticut Warbler-Doesn’t breed in Connecticut
“Philadelphia Vireo was named in 1851 by American ornithologist John Cassin, who described the species based on a specimen of a migrant in Philadelphia. A local name for the species in that city was once ‘Brotherly-love Vireo.’”
“The Connecticut Warbler was named after the state where the first specimen was collected. However the species does not breed in Connecticut, nor is it an especially common migrant there.”
I have heard that in the wake of WW1, most countries still had pretty strict censorship of the media. Spain, which had not been involved in the war, was the first place where details of the pandemic were widely reported. Somewhat unfairly the name Spanish Influenza stuck
New Zealand spinach Tetragonia tetragonioide does grow in Zealand but is also in Australia and the Americas. It was widely cultivated by Native American farmers. In the US and other places it is often called “goosefoot”