Hi I’m a new horticulture student, but I’m 45 and gardenig is life, but the latin is new to me. I’m also googling & looking through some books I have, but I’m a plant nerd that likes talking to plant nerds and someone might have fun nerding out on this one. Are balsams among orchids? Here are some impatiens for your viewing pleasure.
by kat_in_a_boxx
2 Comments
Orchidaceae far outpaces Balsaminaceae in size. There’s much much more hybridizing among Orchidaceae.
[Orchidaceae vs Balsaminaceae.](https://alec.unl.edu/documents/cde/2017/natural-resources/classification-and-naming-of-plants.pdf)
[In his later publication, Species Plantarum, Linnaeus introduced a classification scheme for plants. He defined 24 classes of plant based on their reproductive organs because he thought that—as a father of five children—reproduction was the most important function of an organism. Instead of looking at the whole of every plant, Linnaeus focused on one particular characteristic—the reproductive organs—and classified all plants according to their sexual morphology.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1973966/#:~:text=In%20his%20later%20publication%2C%20Species,important%20function%20of%20an%20organism.)
Many plants have been reclassified recently as we learn more and I think it is inevitable that eventually every plant will be classified based on its DNA but we aren’t even close to that yet so for now we have Linnaeus.
What you are noticing is convergence. Life will notice what works so two completely different forms will come up with the same solution.
Once you get into the Latin and how things are named, a whole new world opens up. For instance, euphorbias can look so different but once you know the flower apparatus, you will have bingo moments and it is the same with Solanaceae (potatoes, tomatoes, deadly nightshade). The Latin genus and species may tell you the color (alba) or it may be in reference to who discovered it or in honor of someone (Humboldtii – Alexander has more things named after him than anyone including the Humboldt current).
I’ve been out of school for 50 years so correct away redditors!
EDIT – it is now easy to look up the pronunciation of any Latin, or word, on the internet. I am self-taught so my first few months working at a nursery after retirement had many embarrassing moments! Also, if you haven’t already, turn on the AI function in Chrome.