Disambiguation of Some Common Plant Names

I think the word disambiguation is cute. It means to remove uncertainty, and in this context and Google's, to point out when two different things have the same name and clarify which is which. Scientific names were created to address this problem in plants and animals, but not everyone understands this and certainly not everyone uses scientific names. 

Below are disambiguations for sage, hemlock, bergamot, and yam. (More in future posts)

sagebrush, Artemisia is not the same as culinary sage, Salvia

Common Names--Too Many Shared Names

Calthus palustris  Do you call it cowslip or (marsh) marigold?

Nobody regulates common names. That's one of the reasons for scientific names. The rule on scientific names is: each organism has one and only one name, not shared with any other organism. 

Common names don't obey either of those rules. I wrote previously about multiple common names for the same plant. (link) That is annoying, because sometimes you don't recognize that someone is talking about a plant you know only because they're using a different common name. 

I think the same common name for different plant is even more unfortunate. In this day of using words on the internet to learn about things, shared common names lead to at best, time wasted working out which plant you want, and at worst, possible poisoning because one plant with that name is toxic and one isn't. 

another cowslip Primula vulgaris

another marigold, Tagetes sp.

Plant Confusions: Garden Sage and Sagebrush are Different

garden sage, Salvia officinalis

big sagebrush, Artemisia tridentata

Sometimes two plants with the same name are quite different. 

     I still remember my surprise, years ago, when I realized garden sage and prairie sages were unrelated.

    The culinary herb, sage, sometimes called garden sage for clarity, Salvia officinalis, is from Europe. Although it doesn’t taste or smell minty, you can call it a mint because it is in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is related to a host of important culinary herbs, not just clary sage, spearmint and peppermint, but also plants as diverse as lemon balm, catnip and oregano. 

garden sage with flowers