flahr-names

[sagehen]

>Hardly. A buttercup is a crowfoot, and, botanically, daffodils and
>jonquils are both narcissuses (or, for the high-falutin' narcissi,
>not -ae).
>
>But I know lots of green-thumbers who will regularly refer to some
>plants as narcissuses and others (in contrast) as daffodils. Folk
>realities are, of course, not any less "real" than scientific ones.
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The common names of plants collectively show us the importance of the
botanical names.  A casual browse through the wonderful 3-volume Britton &
Brown /Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States & Canada/ reveals
that not only do many plants have half-a-dozen common names, but that the
same common name may be shared by half-a-dozen different plants, coming
from as many different genera.
A. Murie