Having worked with plant databases now for the past three years, I am a stickler for the correct names. And really, it is not so hard to learn!

I have come to rely heavily on ThePlantList.org for reference. Very user-friendly!

Yes, that's a good site with great information.

Thank you Dave, for a very nice and concise article, what would we do without botanical names?
We would be totally confused for sure.

Sometimes it seems that the International Botanical Congress just changes the botanical names just to give people a hard time. I mean, I know there are valid reason sometimes, but I keep thinking...suppose they just decide one day to change a botanical name for no particular reason. I have plant books with many of the botanical names in them that aren't valid anymore. And many times I don't even know they've been changed. Some of those botanical names have changed more than once since the books were published.

I can't believe it was just 2 years ago I started learning about botanical names. I am so thankful to so many people here and at Cubits for teaching me so much.
And now here is your article Dave that makes it even easier to understand.
Thank you for a great article.

Great information Dave! Thanks!

A special thanks to Dave for this. I have been growing plants for a long time, but never understood the genus, species thing.

It might be simple to some, but not to all of us.

Dave patiently explained it in a tree-mail to me a few weeks back.

This article spells it out even more clearly!

good job Dave!

I think that they should publish a book or list of changes when that happens, because as Linda said it can be confusing.

Very good article Dave, thank you.

I like your descriptions such as all mints in the box and then break out from there.

I'm glad you all liked it, thank you.

Josephine, they do indeed publish their changes following their meetings. And when a name is changed, the old usually remains as a synonym.

Great! but how do we find out about the changes, is there a particular site to go to?

That's a good question. I don't think there is a definitive site that lists out the changes in an easy to digest format.

The Plant List has a 'scale' of how they rate the reliability of a name with one, two or three stars. It's a start.

Dave: Wonderful article! We need a special section on the ATP Front Page for informational "stickies" like this.

I like the names that describe and when you learn a few, then it is easier to learn the botanical names. I would like a list of the common ones, for exampe I think its lutea for yellow, lepto for thin, etc. Basically a lot of them are describing the plant in terms of color, seed shape, leaf shape, etc. Some names like leptospermum basically mean "thin seed". I find that intersting, this beautiful shrub, evergreen with awesome flowers and the best they could do was "thin seed".

I have found it fun to learn a few of them and so many are the color.

Great article, I learned a lot in a fun way.

I hate trying to learn the new names, I heard that a lot of them changed due to dna testing and finding they were really from a different source than originally thought.

I vote for the binomial names over common names, in any kind of seed or plant trading activity.

I'm holding a collection of donated seeds, and often something will be contrbuted with a one-word or two-word common name. In order to give the seeds away intelligently, I like to know things like "annual or perennial" and hardiness zone, and whether it's a flower or a shrub or tree.

However, for most common names, a short search will find dozens or hundreds of species, many hundred cultivars, and often as many as 5-6 different genra!

When I know who who contributed the seed, I ask gently if they have any more details for the name, or a description that might narrow it down some. However, one canny gardener warned me that many people would stop contributing if asked "for that much detail".

And one person made it very clear that she didn't care about names, to her the only improtant thing was that she liked how it looks.

It's true that not everyone is in love with details and fussy precision.

Personally, I wish there were a CSI or NCIS for plants that would do plant DNA tests and tell me exact species, cultivar, parent strains for recent hybrids, and which hillside that exact seed germinated on! But I doubt that would give any actual advantage to most normal, sane gardeners.

On the other hand, there is some advantage to knowing whether a traded seed is an annual flower or a 30 foot tree before you plant it!