Who is Carl Linnaeus??

Who the devil is Carl Linnaeus? Its a question that has haunted me for some time, having heard his name tossed about in botanical conversation from time to time. Sparked by a discussion in Sproutoff I did a little research.

Apparently we have Carl to thanks for the modern taxonomy of almost every living thing in the world, but most importantly (to me anyways) he was foremost a botanist, sending out disciples to glean information, plant samples, and sketches from every corner of the globe. If you look at a plant tag and see words like "Athyrium niponicum var. pictum" you have Mr. Linnaeus to thank for making it perfectly clear exactly what plant you are looking at.

The taxonomy Carl established not only lets us know what plant we are looking at, but it often gives clues to the place of the plant's discovery (Cornus Florida, for example), the plant's discoverer (Kolkwitzia Amabilis) or perhaps growing conditions, plant form, or other important things relative to the plant itself.

When you hear a gardener speaking Latin, don't shy away, instead, raise a toast Carl, and ask if you might know the plant's common name. No one is offended by this, and even the most adept of gardeners won't know every plant's Latin name. The reason so many gardeners use these names is because some plants have multiple common names, and it can get confusing trying to figure out which plant someone is referring to.

And once you get to know the Latin names, you can impress your non gardening friends with your exotic plants, I mean really, don't "viola tricolour", "viola cornuta", "viola pendunculata", and "viola bicolour" all sound better than Johnny Jump-up? I hope so, because the same common name is used for all of them.

Join us in raising a toast to Carl Linnaeus today!