Gardener's Latin: A Lexicon

by Bill Neal

Do you like your plants proceris (tall or long) or pumili (dwarf; low-growing; small)? Phoenicolasii (with purple hair) or pyriformes (shaped like a pear)?

Does your vegetable garden favor esculenti (tasty; edible) plants, rather than emetici (vomit-causing) ones?

Do you keep urticoides (nettle-like) plants out of the schoolyard garden, but tender the learning patch with anacanthi (thornless) seedlings?

So don't plant a zibethinus (foul-smelling) or tragophyllus (having leaves with a goat-like odor) plant under your windowsill. Refer to this helpful, clear, and clever volume and all your gardening ventures will be simply mirabile (marvelous; astonishing).

Genres: Gardening, Reference, Nonfiction, Science

144 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1992

Reviews

[Broken Lifeboat]

Lovely little reference book for plant lovers and word nerds

[Carolyn]

I don’t know how one would get the best out of this book. It was clearly a labor of love and has interesting tidbits, but it’s poorly suited for either reading straight through or looking up specific words you have a question about. Each individual entry is very short, and half the time raises more questions than it answers. Some entries are actually useless, such as “Tubispathus: tube-spathed.” Nothing else. What? I guess you’re just supposed to dip into this book occasionally and see what turns up.

I mean, I made some fascinating connections, especially between botanical Latin and medical Latin, of the “so THAT’S what it means” kind. But I can’t think of anyone I would recommend it to.

[Liz]

I’ve been browsing through this for awhile now, and reading all the little sidebars. I want to make a project of identifying the plants and trees in my yard, and I want to learn their Latin and common names. Fun facts – I knew that elephants were called “pachyderms,” but I never knew it meant “thick-skinned” or that plants can also be thick-petaled (Pachyanthus) or thick-barked (Pachyphloeus). I love my pesto, and grow lots of basil to make it, but I never know it was once feared, and was even blamed for a scorpion in someone’s brain caused by merely smelling it! And a plant called Daphne pontica is an evergreen that smells so good a certain garden recommends its planting between house and car, to help you shed the troubles of the day when you get home. I might try that! This little book is a keeper.

[Nicole]

Understand the Latin and end the confusion.
The mock orange or sweet syringa as it is commonly called is really the Philadelphus coronarius. The confusion arises when a relative the lilac or Syringa vulgaris is referred to by just its genus Syringa. It is rare to have a common name in Latin but this is such an instance and can lead to some misunderstanding in discussing the two.

[Joanna]

Entertaining to skim through, I am hopeful that it will also prove helpful as a reference.

[Jeanne]

delightful