Dictionary of Plant Names

Gardener’s Latin by Bill Neal (Front and Back Covers)

Lately, I’ve been trying to use scientific names when talking about plants. It’s hard unless the words I’m repeating mean something or tell a story about the plant. Of course, many of the scientific names are very descriptive, and do just that. I’m just not familiar with the words. Often the full botanical name can tell you where the plant originated, the discoverer, the color, and other interesting attributes of the plant. To that end, there are many sources to help you decipher names. Two that I’ve used are Gardener’s Latin by Bill Neal and Dictionary of Plant Names by Allen J. Coombes. The latter focuses on both genus and species names while the former just on species names, so it’s a bit more useful.

Dictionary of Plant Names (Front and Back Cover)