If you love language and you love plants, then you’ll love this book. RHS Latin for Gardeners by Lorraine Harrison explains all those tricky-to-pronounce botanical words attached to our dear plants, herbs and flowers.
The book itself – a hardback – has a lovely cover and is nicely bound… it looks pretty on your bookshelf! It is perfect as a reference book and for the odd dip into while drinking a cup of coffee. The main body of the book is an alphabetical list of botanical terms, each explained, with a pronunciation guide too. Here’s an example:
helix HEE-licks:
Spiral-shaped; applied to twining plants, as in Hedera helix
Now, I never knew “helix” meant that, but it makes sense….
I also never knew that the “novi-belgii” in Aster novi-belgii means “connected with New York”.
Or that the “bonariensis” in Verbena bonariensis means “from Buenos Aries”!
Or that “saccharata” in Pulmonaria saccharata means “sweet or sugared/as if dusted with sugar”.
And the list of discovery goes on!
I was pleasantly surprised how many I had guessed correctly, such as Cymbalaria muralis (“growing on walls”), and the information hidden within these words delivers excellent guidelines for planting… if a plant is from Buenos Aries it will like heat and sunshine, right?
A bonus is the pages in between the list… a few plants are profiled, with notes on how they got their name or certain associations and uses. And some famous plant hunters are also given a page or two, with examples of the plants they discovered on various continents.
This is the ideal gift for a keen gardener, and absolutely perfect for anyone fascinated by botanical plant names. It is already a favourite of mine, and the gardening season hasn’t even begun!
A perfect book…so glad you reviewed this as I just added it to my Amazon cart.
I think any gardener would like this book. I’m sure you will love it!
What a great tip–thanks Cathy. I love discovering the Latin roots of words.
I find word origins fascinating – and puzzling too!
Very useful and interesting. I hope our library carries it. I would love to know how to pronounce the names of some flowers I just read about.
Since the English and German common names are obviously different, I like to know the botanical names for when I chat to my Mum on the phone – I often say names differently to her and we confuse each other! (I suppose I say it the way the Germans do!)
Thanks for the review. I believe it would be fun and useful.
Definitely both. 😀 Have a nice Sunday Susie.
What a perfect book for the “Words and Herbs” person that you are; and a great book for just about anyone interested in plants and life.
For a linguist gardener a must! 😀
Hi Cathy! I have this book! I just love the gorgeous cover but haven’t managed to learn anything! Adam uses it a lot though because he is studying horticulture. I think it looks beautiful. I’m a big fan of nice looking books : ) !!
Good to hear it’s being put to good use! 😀
Oh, I want this! I had even thought of taking a latin course just so I could learn more about plant names. Now I don’t have to do that – I can just read this book!
It’s surprising how much Latin you can learn from a few plant names!
Great recommendation. Learning the roots of the Latin names can often help with remembering the binomial tag of a plant, but it can also lead the unwary astray. Still a good way to pass an hour on a cold afternoon though.
I’ve found it fascinating so far, and it’s very easy to lose yourself in it for an hour… or so!
This stuff is strangely fascinating. Did you know that the suffix -oides means “like a thing”? So helanthoides means like a sunflower.
Never knew that, but that is just the kind of stuff I love learning about! (I think this book would amuse you too!)
What a lovely book review! Thank you; I’m adding this to my wish list!
Enjoy leafing through it Cindy! It’s fun stuff!
All the Latin I’ve learned (which, to be honest, isn’t much) has come from gardening. This sounds like a fascinating book, your review has me wanting to get hold of a copy soon!
It seems you’ve got the perfect weather for a spot of reading Sarah… I hear England’s covered in snow again!
I’ve always loved the greek and latin of gardening!, Learning the botanical names was my favourite part of the course when I was completing my first qualification as a horticulturalist, while the other students were groaning through the plant Id classes I was just enthralled, by the language of plant names, which sounded just so poetic and rolled off the tongue!
I like the sound of the names too, so this book is a real pleasure to dip into. Thanks for your comment Cat!
I want it!!!
Treat yourself! 😉
Yes, this is a must-have, for sure! And you’re right, it’s such a pretty book, too! Love it!
Another one for the list. 😉 (My reading list for this year seems to be growing already!)
I think everything tastes better with etymology spread on it. The three years of Latin I took in high school have come in handy for understanding botanical terminology. The process has even been reciprocal, and my Latin vocabulary is larger now than it was when I was a teenager even though I’ve never taken another Latin course since then.
I still have much to learn, but plant names are so interesting – not only the Latin words, but also the botanists’ names that are so often used. I just looked up Kolkwitzia amabilis for example! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkwitzia_amabilis)
There are fascinating stories over here, too, and some of the early botanists in Texas were, like Kolkwitz, German. One example is Ferdinand Lindheimer, whom I mentioned and provided links for in the middle paragraph of the post at
http://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/lindheimers-senna-pods/
Linnaeus, the great classifier, was fond of naming things after people he knew.
Thanks Steve. By the way, I’ve noticed a strange phenomena – Wikipedia in German often has much more detail on plants and botany than the equivalent English pages. One example was the Kolkwitzia I looked up earlier. (Here’s the link to the German page – from the length alone you can notice a difference: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolkwitzie )