Episode 186: It's All Greek Retrospective (Part 3)

Welcome back to the It's All Greek Retrospective series that contains previously aired short segments about gardening acronyms, jargon, and botanical nomenclature. In this third and last part of a series, Master Gardener Jean Thomas covers plants that have been named after people, a discussion about soil pH, and a range of acronyms.

The first short segment covers the popularity of naming plants for people. It's been going on since people began naming plants at all, dating back to at least four centuries BC. Two causes are usually to blame; either the ego of the “discoverer” or the desire to flatter someone powerful. There are often great stories to uncover. One of the most interesting is the name of the Christmas standard, the Poinsettia (not poinTsettia). Dr, Joel Poinsett was the first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico and an avid plant collector. His life story is a colorful one, but the only reason anyone remembers his name is because of the seasonal flower. Actually, the history of the flower and its interaction with humans is equally interesting. Some other names every gardener is familiar with are: Forsyth because this gentleman (1737-1804) was a respected palace gardener in England and was honored with the name of the familiar Forsythia; Kasper Wister (died in 1818) was a famous botanist in Pennsylvania and honored with the name of the popular Wisteria. Wister and Forsyth were honored by the English botanist Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859), who spent over thirty years cataloging plants in the U.S., and had the power to assign formal names to plants. The familiar Magnolia x soulangeana was named by and for Pierre Magnol and m. Soulange-Boudin, and developed from two Chinese species. Many familiar shrubs bear the species names (like Sargentii( C.S. Sargent), Fortuneii (R. Fortune), Thunbergii ( Carl Peter Thunberg)), named for contemporaries and students of Linnaeus. Many plant and animal names honor the interesting Pere Armand David with the appelation “davidii.” The familiar Fuchsia (Dr. Fuchs) and Dahlia (Dr. Dahl) are good herbaceous examples. The large Lobelia group (415 species) was named by Linnaeus himself for Dr. Mathias De Lobile.

The conversation then moves on to one of the great topics discussed by gardeners without a real understanding of the mechanism. The pH of soil is crucially important and measured and adjusted fanatically by gardeners. The way the chemistry works is described, starting with the litmus papers we dealt with in school science classes. Cations and anions are the active ions that determine how soil makes nutrition available to plants. A scale is used, with one end called acid and the other end called
alkaline. The place on the scale tells the soil's description as to what kinds of nutrients are best assimilated. “Acid” soil is best for blueberries and Rhododendrons and “Alkaline” soil is better for Lilacs and Spirea. Gardeners assiduously “adjust” the soil with amendments like sulfur or wood ash, remembering that this takes several seasons to effect. Jean closes this segment with an aside about names where she wonders about Monkshood, Begonias and Darth Vader.

The final segment moves on to acronyms, which translates to “names from the extremities.” It refers to new names for things created from the initials of word describing the things. Like Scuba, Laser, and Yahoo. There is also another related usage of initials called initialism, where the actual letters are sounded out, not merged into a new word. For instance, AT&T or DEC. Both of these practices are twentieth century phenomena. Further discussion of acronyms leads us to AVID, CRISP and PRISM, all popular programs in New York, devised by Cornell and the NY Department of Conservation. In a nutshell, the ideal acronym is an invented word that should either help recognize its subject or be catchy enough to be memorable and relatable to its subject.

Host: Jean Thomas
Guest:Jean Thomas
Photo By: Jean Thomas
Production Support: Linda Aydlett, Deven Connelly, Teresa Golden, Tim Kennelty, Amy Meadow, Xandra Powers, Annie Scibienski, Jean Thomas

Resources:

• Plant Finder
• Explore Cornell - Home Gardening - Introduction
• Iris
• Etymonline - Online Etymology Dictionary
• The Plant Hunters, Tyler Whittle
• Understanding Soil pH

Last updated August 13, 2025