The name sounds native, but it's not

Nature Talk
61

There is an Australian eucalypt called Eucalyptus moluccana wich was first formally described in 1832 by William Roxburgh in his Flora Indica; or descriptions of Indian Plants
It seems Mr Roxburgh collected so many specimens he was confused that this one was from Australia not the Molluccas. No GPS in those days

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62

Thanks! Did not know those last two.

63

Connecticut warbler definitely fits the topic!

64

I also thought argenteus and argentea refers to silver and argentatus and argentiniana refer to Argentina.
For example, Potentilla argentea

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65

No, argentea/us or argentata/us both mean silver. In contrast, argentinensis would mean ‘of Argentina’ and argentinicola would mean ‘inhabiter of Argentina’

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66

If I discover a new species there, can I call it X porteñensis instead?

67

How about mespotamicus (from Entre Rios)?

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68

Argentatus means silvery, not found in Argentina.

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69

You’d have to drop the tilde.

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70

It’s not a tilde, ‘‘ñ’’ is in fact another letter in the alphabet of a few languages like Spanish, with a different pronunciation. So Spanish speakers (like me) have 27 letters in our alphabet instead of 26.

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71

Yes I should’ve said you’d have to replace it with an N. Unless there’s another way to latinize it.

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72

Yes exactly.

73

Here in New Mexico we respect and use the 27th letter even if we occasionally can’t use it in some electronic writing and have to resort to corruptions like “pinyon.”

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74

Well, in that case you can google ‘‘pine nut in Spanish’’, copy the translation and paste it on your text.

75

I just moved to Georgia, and I’ve quickly learned to assume that anything that has “Confederate” in the name is most likely a non native plant that the slaveowners just decided to pretend belonged to them…

76

For plants that were named prior to the creation of the United States and the nation of Canada, canadense and viriginiana most likely referred to regions corresponding the New France colony of Canada and the lands claimed under the Virginia Charter. Their boundaries in the 17th and18th centuries were radically different from the country and state that bear those names today.

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77

Which leads to confusion when speaking across borders, because piñón in the Dominican Republic means the fence post tree, Gliricidia sepium.

Which is also the reason you will find species from the Great Plains with ludovicianus in their specific epithet. It refers to the entire Louisiana Purchase, not today’s state of Louisiana.

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78

Back to the topic, Periplaneta roaches, like the American roach. It’s far from being American, it seems to be native to Africa. It was named like that because it was found and described after being introduced in the continent.

79

So, it’s like Norwegian rat which is from Asia.

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80

Yeah.