I am amazed by language. We spend a large portion of our lives learning language. In our childhood, we develop an immense vocabulary. Yet, as adults, we are continually adding new words to our repertoire.

For me, many of those new words are in Latin as I am exposed to new (to me) plant species. Now that I’m older, I also find that I must connect these names to something I know in order to recall the plant the name describes. Sometimes I am able to connect the Latin to its Spanish equivalent (thanks to four years of learning that language in high school) or to a chemical that I studied in college. Other times it is just a word association made up for the occasion:

• Black walnut is called Juglans nigra. In Spanish, ‘negro’ is black, so I have a way to remember the species. As for the genus, walnuts are a great size for juggling…
• Spicebush has fragrant leaves that smell almost fruity. Its Latin name is Lindera benzoin. The word ‘benzoin’ is very similar to benzene, a chemical that is the simplest of a group of chemicals called ‘aromatic hydrocarbons,’ so named because they are an essential part of many fragrances, ranging from mothballs to many food-related odors (including many fruits).
• Quercus imbricaria is the Latin name for shingle oak, one of the two Missouri species of oak that do not get the typical lobes, making them a challenge to identify for new botanists. The leaves are a bit like shingles that you might put on a brick house: shingle oak – Quercus imbricaria. Quite a stretch, but I haven’t forgotten this one yet!
• Solidago altissima is tall goldenrod. If we aren’t careful, we have found that our prairies can become a ‘solid’ mass of Solidago… In Spanish, ‘alto’ is tall, and the word is similar to altissima.

This is just a few examples of the linguistic connections I’ve made in the past several years when it comes to learning plant names. If you have any of your own, I’d love to hear them!!