Be-a-Better-Gardener What’s in a Name?

 

Be-a-Better-Gardener
What’s in a Name?

Aster: its name is derived from the Greek word for star.

 By Thomas Christopher

 

 

I have reached an age where I need to guard against fogeyism. It’s not that I resist all change, but I do get cranky about the changes that botanists are introducing into the Latin names of plants.  Not surprisingly, my irritation increases as age makes it more difficult for me to memorize the new monikers of familiar plants.

I do understand the need.  Botanical taxonomists, the scientists who explore the relationships between different plants, had been using fairly superficial characteristics such as the number of petals or other sexual parts to establish what was related to what and how. Now they’ve got the powerful tool of genetic analysis to do the same things, and not surprisingly, it is revealing that many of their previous assumptions were wrong. The common dogwood of our northeastern woods, it turns out, is not so closely related to the Kousa dogwood of northeast Asia as it had appeared. So Kousa dogwood remains, botanically speaking, a Cornus (Cornus kousa), while our native dogwood has been transformed from Cornus florida to Benthamidia florida.  Knowledge continues to evolve, which can change even the changes. There was an attempt made back in the 1990’s to change our familiar garden chrysanthemums into Dendranthema, but after much confusion in the nursery catalogs, an international commission decided that chrysanthemums should be called chrysanthemums after all.

Why not use the common names, which the botanists do not tinker with? Unfortunately, these are subject to regional variations, so that one name is often used to refer to two or more different plants. If, when you are shopping for plants, you want to get what you want, you need to use botanical names.

Which brings me to a dilemma. Asters are (or were) the glory of this season in the woods and meadows of the northeastern United States.  They are one of the first plants I learned to recognize as a child because their timing and their colorful, flattened, daisy-like flowers are so characteristic.

Growing up in a suburb of New York, I felt a particular affinity with the New York asters (Aster novi-belgii, when I was learning plant names) with their purple, blue, pink or white flowers. These bloomed along the roadsides and were mainstays of the late summer-early fall perennial garden.

Today, as a resident of the Northeast, I suppose I should feel a greater loyalty to the New England asters (which I was taught to call Aster novae-angliae). These are similar to the New York asters, except that they are leggier, hairy-leaved, and have fuller blossoms that make better cut flowers. Both the New Yorkers and the New Englanders flourish in a sunny spot in well-drained but moist soils (dig a couple of shovelfuls of compost into the soil when planting). Pinch them back before mid-summer to encourage compact growth so that the plants don’t develop long, floppy stems – otherwise they are prone to lounge on their neighbors. Give them good air circulation, too, to protect them against mildew, a disease to which asters are susceptible.

Except, of course, they are no longer asters.  Both of these species have been reclassified and renamed as “Symphyotrichum.” And here, I think is where I draw the line. Aster is not only easier to pronounce, it is pretty and appropriate: aster is ancient Greek for star, which describes the bright, twinkling flowers perfectly. Whereas symphyotrichum means “coming together hairs” which supposedly describes some aspect of the bloom, though I don’t see what.

To date, the nursery catalogs have mostly stayed loyal to the old name, aster, so I can get away with my intransigence for the time being. Change is coming, though:  my co-author, Ruth Clausen, who drafted me to help write an encyclopedia of perennials (Essential Perennials, Timber Press 2014) insisted that we be accurate and list our asters as Symphiotrichums.

No doubt the nursery people will eventually follow her lead and then I too will have to learn a new name for these glories of the fall.

 

Thomas Christopher is the co-author of “Garden Revolution” (Timber Press, 2016) and is a volunteer at Berkshire Botanical Garden. berkshirebotanical.org

Be-a-Better-Gardener is a community service of Berkshire Botanical Garden, one of the nation’s oldest botanical gardens in Stockbridge, MA. Its mission to provide knowledge of gardening and the environment through 25 display gardens and a diverse range of classes informs and inspires thousands of students and visitors on horticultural topics every year.  Thomas Christopher is the co-author of Garden Revolution (Timber press, 2016) and is a volunteer at Berkshire Botanical Garden. berkshirebotanical.org.

 

Author: Harlem Valley News