Flowers of the Southwest DesertsDodge, Natt N. (Natt Noyes)
Science
Flowers of the Southwest Deserts
Dodge, Natt N. (Natt Noyes)
Desert plants; Flowers -- Southwest, New
It has often been said that “a rose by any other name would smell as
sweet.” Although the statement is literally true, we are often
disappointed, perhaps offended, when we find some flower friend of long
acquaintance called by another, and, to our minds, inferior name. Also,
we dislike the attachment of a name which we have long associated with a
certain plant to another, and perhaps less attractive, flower.
Common names are by no means standardized in their usage, and a well
known plant in one part of the country may be called by an entirely
different name somewhere else. Also, certain names are applied to a
number of plants which more or less resemble one another. For instance,
the name “Greasewood” is applied to almost any plant that has oily or
highly inflammable leaves; and with the avid reading by eastern people
of Zane Grey’s and other “westerns,” any shrubby plant with grayish
foliage covering large areas of western land immediately becomes
“Sagebrush.” This is particularly irritating to inhabitants of the
desert areas treated in this booklet because true Sagebrush (_Artemisia
tridentata_) rarely grows below elevations of 6,000 feet. The loose
application of common names is a confusing annoyance to wildflower
enthusiasts.
In an effort to avoid this confusion and to establish a method of naming
that will be uniform throughout the world, botanists have developed a
system using descriptive Latin names and grouping plants into genera and
families based upon their relationships to one another as determined by
their physical structure. Unfortunately for the layman, this system is
so technical and the Latin names so unintelligible that he becomes
completely bewildered. Furthermore, advanced botanical studies result in
continual regroupings and changes in names so that the amateur botanist
finds it impossible to keep up. Botanists who specialize in plant
nomenclature have a tendency to become so involved with the
technicalities of naming that their writings bristle with minute
descriptions of anatomical details and the reader searches in vain for
such basic information as a simple statement of the color of the
flowers.
The majority of common flowers have several to many common names. This
is particularly true in the Southwest where some plants have names in
English, Spanish, and one or more Indian languages. In addition, of
course, each species has its scientific name. An effort has been made in
this booklet to give as many of the names applied to each selected
flower as are readily available. This not only aids in identifying the
plant, but adds to its interest. The reader then finds himself in the
enviable position of being able to scan the field and choose whichever
name appeals to him with the reasonable assurance that he is right—at
least in one locality.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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