taxonomy

Every gardener needs to know their Latin names. They may look confusing at first, but once you understand what certain key words mean, impenetrable-sounding and hard-to-pronounce species names are suddenly demystified. Many Latin names hide the secrets of where the plant is found, its colour, flowering times, leaf pattern, natural habitat and all sorts of other information that’s extremely useful to the gardener: if you want a plant for a shady place, choose one with a name ending in sylvestris (‘of woods’), while if your garden is dry, look out for the suffix epigeios (‘of dry places’). More than just a dictionary of plant names, this fascinating book explains the meaning of hundreds of Latin plant terms, grouped into handily themed sections such as plants that are named after famous women, plants that are named after the shape of their leaves, plants that are named after their fragrance or the time of year that they flower. Within these pages you’ll learn that the sanguineum in Geranium sanguineum means ‘bloody’ (its common name is the bloody cranesbill), and to steer clear of any plant whose Latin name ends in infestus.

For two decades readers around the world have been fascinated by Brian Capon’s crystal-clear descriptions of how plants work. What happens inside a seed after it is planted? How do plants use each other – and animals – to survive? How do they reproduce, and how do they transform nutrients into growth? Botany for gardeners is the most complete, compact, and accessible introduction to the world of botany available. The new edition has been expanded with dazzling scanning electron microscope photographs and even more amazing facts about plants. Especially timely are new essays on food plants: what makes plants edible, the effects of climate change, and the role of genetic engineering. A wide range of topics covered include the exotic behaviours of unusual seeds, the astounding weight-bearing capacity of the Victoria waterlily, and the ingenious existence of lichens.

Knowledge of plant names can give insight into largely forgotten beliefs. Conceived as part of the author’s interest in plant and tree lore and ethnobotanical studies, this book contains over 30,000 vernacular and literary English names of plants.