"A Rose by Any Other Name."

[DaveM]

Dare I say ... even better to have seen it growing in its native habitat... having to hike up to over 10000 feet tramping over basalt lava and dusty ash, all at the equator.......... I agree, a very beautiful plant.

[Maggi Young]

tramping over basalt lava and dusty ash

Good grief, Dave, must you tell people about the state of my kitchen?




I see they're talking about Galanthus snogerupii in the snowie threads...snogerupii..now there's a word..

[Lesley Cox]

Per-Ake's Austro..... has my vote so far but Dave, you must come a close second as I believe the full name for the silver sword is Argyroxiphium macrocephalum sandwichense. I have actually grown this and would post the pic if I could find the darned thing. (Scanned from a print and on a floppy disc. Can't find the right disc.) It grew for 3 years then died, in a large pot surrounded by parsley plants. Joe and Ann Cartman have grown and flowered it and my plant was a seedling from one of theirs. I loved the leaves, so thick and succulent yet looking very metallic.

[Lesley Cox]

Re smallest plant with longest name, it would probably go to one of those tiny Japanese violas or hypericums.

[SueG]

This one always stumps me - Michauxia tchihatcheffii , but a close contender is Crocus cvijicii - that just has to be a typing error, or a joke! Or are you given the secret of pronouncing in on initiation into croconut status??
Sue

[Diane Clement]

Crocus cvijicii - are you given the secret of pronouncing in on initiation into croconut status??

I believe that E A Bowles said you had to sneeze it or play it on the violin

[DaveM]

Maggi - I would never steep so low as to comment on the state of your kitchen floor.

Lesley, it's good to hear that others too have grown the silversword the silveriness is really something; I had forgotten that sandwichense was the subspecies name, thanks for adding the full name. I guess the problem is that seed is but rarely available, though looking at the plant with its large flower spike, it must set bucket loads of seed?

Sue - I've no idea whether my pronunciation Crocus cvijicii is correct, but the specific name defies spelling!!

Fossil plant names can be an absolute nightmare, take for instance Zosterophyllum myretonianum, an extinct member of the Zosterophyllopsidae and related to the lycopods from Devonian time.... but I suppose you'll disallow this.....

Then of course there are the Gym..no..sperms.........

[Lesley Cox]

Try sieve-ee-each-ee-eye, running the first ee and the each together. Works for me though I deeply resent Bowles' suggestion that it has anything in common with the sound of a violin, except perhaps in a brand new learner, drawing bow for the first time. I don't have a problem with Gymnospermium but until seeing your spaced out version David, have always used a hard g as in gate, hadn't considered that it could be as in Jim.

On something completely different. At last week's Market in town, I was given a page from the Scotsman and a video tape both of which featured our moderators' garden in Aberdeen. In the paper, Ian talked about the plants and his reasons for certain techniques and there were some very nice pictures. In the video, the delectable Maggi was talking about rhododendrons and other small Ericaceae in their garden. I can tell those who don't already know that Maggi animated is quite a different person even from the smiling avatar by which we down here know her. A real delight in fact and a pleasure to meet even if not quite in the flesh. Thanks Maggi for sending these to your sister and to Ann, for letting me borrow them.

[Maggi Young]

Re a hard "G"... good point, but then we are accustomed, or at least, I am, to saying jimnasium, jimkhana rather than the Gymnasium, etc. which rather than the classics, suggest German to me! Then again, I do not wish to attend a Jinocologist when my insides fail! Tricky business, this!

And, Lesley, fancy you seeing us on tape etc.! I did send them a  video tape that the BBC Scotland Gardening Programme was flogging a while ago, a compilation of the "best garden visits" from the 25 years they have been running and Bill wrote a great letter to Living TV when Ann turned on her TV one day and found us on, and the TV Company was sweet enough to send her a tape... they normally never do that sort of thing, you know. Ann was well pleased and I was amazed! It must have been one of those you saw, though we have done a few telly "bits", I don't think Ann has any of the others. She has been pleased to discover that various garden things we have done pop up on satellite tv channels like Living etc... if only we got repeat fees!

[Anthony Darby]

You would then become one of the Mag(g)i Maggi?

The name for our second (third?) smallest bird always amuses me: Troglodytes troglodytes troglodytes is the mainland (UK) form of the European Wren (there are four other sub-species on St Kilda, Fair Isle, the Hebrides and the Shetlands).

[Lesley Cox]

I don't actually say the word "gymnasium" ever, under any circumstances. Or let it enter my mind or my body enter it! Too painful by half.

[Maggi Young]

 Re : "gymnasium"    Lesley, I apologise if my use of that word offended you.

Anthony: You would then become one of the Mag(g)i Maggi?

s'pose I would, wonder who the others will be?
 I wouldn't make a good Joe di Maggio, though. that is "Madge-eeo" isn't it?
Not much wonder these long latin names can cause confusion and worse, look at the bother we can get into with our own, Anthony, Ant-ony etc!

[Anthony Darby]

Crumbs, even simple English words come a cropper. Last week all our staff were given pedometers. I other 'English' speaking peoples would make of that; but then they seem to get all het up about foot-fetishists (think about it)? It's my surname that gets spelled wrongly all the time

[SueG]

It's my surname that gets spelled wrongly all the time

Anthony you've got it lucky, try having a surname which people think is your first name. I have lost count of the number of people who call me Gill/Jill. It's got to the point now where I sometimes just look at them and go 'I'm not called Gill' and wait to watch the light dawning, sometimes very slowly!

re crocus civijii etc I noticed that Janis slid very quickly over it's name at Dunblane - could it be he's not sure how to say it. . . .
Sue

[Maggi Young]

Jānis seemed to call it  Crokus "sieve-eee--ee" which has a happy simplicity to it!