Your Questions
Do I need to know botanical names?
There is a great deal of common name confusion- same name very different plants- click this icon for a USDA pdf file on a species of plant that is masquerading under the same common name as my favorite native plant Spiderwort.
Is a plant’s parentage important if I am a complete idiot about plants?
Why would I want to know about a plant’s family?
Knowing about a plant’s family is also a hint of the level of success or failure possible in a specific region or hardiness zone. If there are many adaptive forms in an area, it might do especially well if the cultural situation is even just a near match. If there is only one obscure species that has a very limited range, there maybe many issues, ranging from levels of success, cost with repeated replacements and any hope for ever having the dream of an established planting.
Familiarity has great value too! I might have growing a close relative and been too successful. A plant’s family can serve as a clue to “Proceed with Caution”. If several members of the plant’s family are aggressive, I will be sure to be on watch for any invasiveness.
A plant family (genus) may have many species that are native or hardy in my area but the cultural needs could be different for each species. I may be in love with the look of one member of a plant family and can still have both the look and the success just by searching instead for a close cousin that fits better in my situation.
A great example of shared traits but different culture is in the range of plants in the Spiderwort family. There are many that do well in Missouri but a few do best when grown in the shade. (Also there can be some size and height differences too! ) The same can be true of natural tendencies for a species such a holding power of the foliage. Zigzag Spiderwort tends to keep tidy clean foliage most of the season, if you care what your plant looks like after flowering-look for this member of the spiderwort family!
Natural occurring crosses do happen making exact ID challenging if you don't have or want a botany degree. Knowing crosses happen that may have either parent's traits makes taking note of any obvious differences between different plants in the same eco-system an important part of plant record keeping.
Knowing a plant has been a breeder’s choice for cultivation is also helpful to know. Parents of hybrids are usually adaptable. Using one of the cultivars that are available limits the choice of characteristics, but gives you a choice in the home garden where space may be too limited to allow you to grow many and select a few. Most notable chacteristic differences in cultivars tend to be flower color, foliage variations and size.
Knowing which Plant Family (Genus) a plant belongs to should matter to all eco-gardeners at all levels of expertise-even newbies! If you didn’t care before-you should after you read this-but then that is a choice - if you want to know what to sow!
(The website Bit of Botany’s seed site offers just a few more good reasons to want to know about a plant’s family. )
Why do I need to know if there is a range of characteristic?
If flower color variations and forms occur naturally, it is useful to know this to ID a plant when you are looking for it, in the wild, in a landscape and even at a nursery. Lot’s of people learn about plants by key them out with a guide that is based on flower color index-how do you know to look under blue if the flower you are looking at is pink? Most importantly appreciate the wonderful individuality and uniqueness of God’s creation.
I hope my periodic SOW WHAT Q&A’s helps some of you “average readers” as you referred to yourself, learn a little more! Be sure to read the blog about Shade definitions too! I welcome all your questions and comments. I appreciate the range and uniqueness of both plants and people!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment