#494: Tautonyms

Check out the Triple Tautonyms website to help practise your latin naming of flora and fauna.

#488: Renaming the Pink Cockatoo

An interesting article in the Guardian back in 2023 looked at the comparisons between indigenous naming and the scientific names that are given to species, often by those who 'discover' them. 

One would hope that this aspect of natural history may be included in the specification.

#257: Declining plant awareness

This is an area that I have previously blogged about, going back to work by Robert MacFarlane, which led to the original 'Lost Words' book being created with Jackie Morris.

There were articles published when the Oxford Junior Dictionary announced it was dropping some nature words back in 2015.

The words missing were natural words, and there were others which replaced them that were to do with technology. One could argue as well that these technology words were far more ephemeral than the natural words - technology changes and things become redundant.

This is a more recent academic paper on the same theme. This is very readable.

It starts with some striking words, which I can see being used as the basis for a section in a textbook:

From our earliest settlements, we have been reliant on plants to provide shelter, fuels, and sustenance and are the basis of nearly all terrestrial ecosystems (Lev-Yadun et al., 2000). Plants perform a huge variety of essential functions, from forming soils to producing oxygen, yet their neglect is costing us dearly (Bardgett et al., 2021). From birth to death, plants dominate every aspect of our existence—they are our silent partners in civilization (Adamo et al., 2021). There is virtually always a plant or a plant product in your field of vision. Despite this significance, plants are currently underappreciated and neglected in many sectors of modern society, and there has been little research into identifying the measurable consequences of our plant apathy toward societies' challenges.

It also references Robert Pyle's work referring to the "extinction of experience".

Pyle describes disconnection from nature via a “cycle of impoverishment  that  is  initiated  by  the  homogenisation  and  reduction  of local  flora and  fauna,  followed  by  disaffection  and  apathy.”  Ultimately,  this  impoverishment  is  intensified by a “shifting  base-line,” progressively decreasing expectations of the quality and function of  the natural areas individuals are exposed to.

#225: What's in a name?

Carl Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist who we have mentioned elsewhere on the blog  The binomial (i.e. two-name) naming system that we use today, invented by a Swedish botanist called  in the 18th century, gets around this confusion by giving each plant its own unique name. 

Linnaeus' system means that anyone, wherever they are in the world, and whatever language they speak, is able to identify a plant, and communicate that information to someone else and they will understand which plant is being discussed. 

Students (and teachers) will need to know the basics of how this system works.

If you know a little Latin you can also work out what some of the elements of the names mean.

Colour
alba/albus - white
caerulea/caeruleus - blue
coccinea/coccineus - scarlet
argentea - silver

Habitat
alpina/alpinus - alpine
campestris - field
maritima - coastal
montana - mountain
pratensis - meadow
sylvatica - forest

Characteristics
angustifolia - narrow leaves
fragans/fragrantissima - scented
foetida/foetidus - smelly (unpleasant)
grandiflora - large-flowered
nana - small, compact
odorata - perfumed
officinalis - has herbal uses
tomentosum - hairy, downy

Habit
columnaris - columnar
dentata - toothed
fruticosa - bushy
gracilis - slender
reptans - creeping
scandens - climbing

Country or area of origin
chinensis - China
japonica - Japan
sibiricus - Siberia
occidentalis - America
orientalis - Asia

And here's his own name:

There will need to be a lesson sequence which introduces students to the system, and the way that it works and then tests their understanding of key words by giving them some sample names and they need to describe what the plant / animal is / likely to look like.

If anyone has some existing CC licensed resources to share on this that would be of interest.