Moan, moan, moan----get it off your chest or have a chat

[Rogan]

Don't you just hate it when you encounter a name like this: Ornithogalum adseptentrionesvergentulum? I mean, what were they thinking?!

[Luc Gilgemyn]

 

[Paddy Tobin]

Rogan,

Taxonomists are by nature and training pedantic.

Paddy

[David Shaw]

And I bet it is just a scruffy white roadside weed?
Mind, it is probably worth putting on the show bench just for the label!

[Tony Willis]

I see it was £41.50 when it was available,nearly £1 per letter.It would not seem one that would bulk up quickly.

[Sinchets]

Have you guys tried googling a pic of it yet? I saw it in PC's catalogue last year and it looked to be worth every penny if you like small and weird!
Try
http://www.penroc.co.za/newsletters2008/julyaug08/ornithogalumadseptentrionesvergentulo4.jpg

[Paul T]

Rogan,

Impressive name. 

I always love Narcissus romieuxii ssp albidus var zainanicus forma lutescens..... for just a "hoop petticoat" daffodil.  The name is definitely bigger than the plant, but I would grow it just so I could rattle the name off to people.  Always gets a chuckle.    Not as impressive as that one word species name that I am sure my tongue would trip over. 

[Sinchets]

It does make perfect sense though when you see its growth form. I have that Narcissus, Paul- or at least seedlings from it. 

[Maggi Young]

Have a look here.... http://talkingplants.blogspot.com/2009/05/whatisthelongestscientificnameforaplant.html     

[Rodger Whitlock]

Our local club once went on an expedition to see "the rarest plant on Vancouver Island", a species of Githopsis. We had to drive on the usual dire gravel logging roads, then scramble first through an area that had been replanted with young firs and later thinned, leaving young, thin, dead trees scattered over the ground like the sticks used in children's games. (Pick-up sticks in the US; jackstraws in the UK?) Then up a steep rocky slope, nearly a cliff, but fortunately with lateral ledges that made the going not too bad, finally a ways along an open area of less slope.

After searching for the githopsis unsuccessfully, we settled down to eat our lunches, and at some point, someone noticed  that I was sitting on top of the githopsis. Oooh, I was such a villain that day, flattening this innocent plant with my ample bottom.

As it happens, githopsis is an extremely small plant, and the flower is so small it's almost invisible. What a disappointment. Not at all garden worthy! I wish I'd sat on it more.

And that's one of the reasons I keep saying, a rock garden group is NOT a botanical group, nor is it a wildflower group, nor is it a natural history group, though we may have interests in those directions. To this day, I sometimes amuse myself by  asking speakers showing slides of wild plants "but does it have any merit in the garden?"

[Sinchets]

It depends what you mean by merit. If you are looking for showing plants, with a long fowering season, they make some 'great' plastic ones these days. Yes, I have worked in several 'garden centres', and yes, I have given this advise to people looking for a plant that flowers all year and doesn't spread too much. 

[Diane Clement]

Have a look here.... http://talkingplants.blogspot.com/2009/05/whatisthelongestscientificnameforaplant.html      

And a brilliant further link from there:
http://www.curioustaxonomy.net/puns/puns.html
This is really funny, can't believe some of these names. You need to say them out loud (and they may not work in all language pronunciations of Latin)
just a selection:

Abra cadabra (clam)
Ba humbugi (endodontoid snail)
Gelae baen, Gelae belae, (fungus beetles)
Heerz tooya  (braconid)
Kamera lens  (protist)
Pieza kake   (mythicomyiid fly)
Pieza pi   (mythicomyiid fly)

And loads more fun on this site ...
including some long names (which is where we started)

Brachyta interrogationis interrogationis var. nigrohumeralisscutellohumeroconjuncta (cerambycid)

and l-o-n-g plant names

Saxifraga aizoon var. aizoon subvar. brevifola forma multicaulis subforma surculosa
Aquilegia flabellata nana pumila alba 'Rama Lama Ding Dong'

[maggiepie]

We had to drive on the usual dire gravel logging roads, then scramble first through an area that had been replanted with young firs and later thinned, leaving young, thin, dead trees scattered over the ground like the sticks used in children's games. (Pick-up sticks in the US; jackstraws in the UK?)

Fiddlesticks in Australia, or at least the game was called that when I was growing up last century 

[Rogan]

Re. Ornithogalum adseptentrionesvergentulum; there's an interesting article on this little Karoo ornithogalum in one of the recent IBSA (Indigenous Bulb Association of South Africa) bulletins.

[Anthony Darby]

Re. Ornithogalum adseptentrionesvergentulum; there's an interesting article on this little Karoo ornithogalum in one of the recent IBSA (Indigenous Bulb Association of South Africa) bulletins.

Is there a pic of it in flower?

They missed an opportunity in not having a subspecies of aloe called Aloe aloe aloe, after all, the western lowland gorilla is Gorilla gorilla gorilla!