A problem with ‘common names’? [Filler]

When I came out of my physical therapy appointment yesterday, there was a landscaping bed that had three wonderful samples of weeds. I snapped a photo and was determined to identify them. One was an easy ID: dandelion (Taraxacum officinale). This is the one I tackled next (ahem, in February).

I emailed a master gardener friend and she sent me a Better Homes and Gardens link to “33 Lawn and Garden Weeds: How to Identify and Control Them.”

I scrolled through the page and found a photo that matched this one. The identified weed was “Creeping Charlie.”

Then I consulted a book she had given me several years ago, The Ortho Home Gardener’s Problem Solver. Go to the index and “Creeping Charlie” is listed with scientific name Lysimachia nummularia.

Then I went online to confirm by matching that scientific name with images. I went to my local photo database, phytoimages.siu.edu » Lysimachia nummularia. Definitely not a match. My photo above shows “scalloped” leaves and Lysimachia nummularia does not have scalloped leaves.

Back to an online search. At The Lawn Institute, I found “Creeping Charlie, Ground Ivy,” and the images matched what I have. Here the scientific name was given as Glechoma hederacea.

To add a level of confirmation, I went back to PhytoImages with the updated scientific name and found the images matched what I have.

I emailed my friend again and she replied that the Ortho book got Charlie’s name wrong.
From the Wikipedia page, “It is also sometimes known as creeping jenny, but that name more commonly refers to Lysimachia nummularia.” Uh huh.

Sooo, it’s no wonder that scholars deal with scientific names only; common names can lead to problems! For lots of common names associated with this weed:
     » North Carolina State Extension Cooperative
     » Wikipedia

And finally, a fun fact also from the Wikipedia page: “Glechoma was also widely used by the Saxons in brewing ale as flavoring, clarification, and preservative, and later by the English, before the introduction of hops into brewing which changed the ale into beer, in the late 15th century. Thus the brewing-related names for the herb: alehoof, tunhoof, and gill-over-the-ground.”

[ PXL_20221107_202105103S75x100Utm :: cell phone ]

Looking back
  1 year ago: “Acanthocephala terminalis” (apparently this doesn’t even have a common name!)
 2 years ago: “Mimi’s next project”
 3 years ago: No post
 4 years ago: No post
 5 years ago: “Maple leaf”
 6 years ago: “Election Day in the U.S.: What direction?”
 7 years ago: “Antique china”
 8 years ago: “Forgot I had this…”
 9 years ago: “Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata)” (not to be confused with Christmas cactus…)
10 years ago: “Green curves”
11 years ago: “‘GIVE THANKS’ for ‘home’…”

[Mags]

Oh my! What an ordeal. But you found it. =)