I recently heard a very interesting conversation between Kim Hill and the actor Robin Malcolm.
Malcolm was explaining that she has become a devotee of the dahlia, as have many gardeners in the past few years. She sparked some controversy by pronouncing the name “dar-lia” rather than “day-lia”, with listeners opinions divided on the correct way to say the word.
As it happens, Malcolm is absolutely right. Dahlias are named after the Swedish botanist Anders Dahl, a name once said to have been bestowed by Carl Linne, the inventor of the binomial method of classifying living organisms. Unfortunately for that theory, the first dahlias to be introduced to Europe arrived eleven years after the death of Linne [perhaps better known as Linnaeus], so he cannot have honoured Dahl that way.
They came from Mexico and nearby countries, having been cultivated by Aztecs and others for their medicinal properties. The tubers were eaten, much in the manner of the potato. They were first introduced to Europe to be used as food, but the relatively unpalatable tubers never caught on as foodstuff.
Instead, they became a popular ornamental plant, having a number of peaks in popularity. Today they are having a revival of interest, perhaps spurred on by the recent introduction of much smaller growing plants with very attractive flowers.
Dahl was associated with other botanists who also have plants named after them.
He worked as a curator for a student of Linnaeus, Clas Alstromer, who established a museum and botanical garden near Gothenburg. Alstromer is, of course, commemorated with the Alstroemeria genus.
Another of his colleagues and friends, Carl Peter Thunberg, named a different genus after him – a shrubby plant that is a South African member of the witch hazel family. The name never stuck, and the genus is now called Trichocladus. Thunberg is much better known, with a genus of evergreen climbers, Thunbergia, named after him. They are mainly pretty vines, with T alate perhaps being the best known – it has orange flowers with a deep eye and is one of the many plants to have the common name of Black-eyed Susan.
These climbers do have a bad reputation in warmer climes, as they have made their escape over the garden fence and out into the environment. There are at least three species that are considered weeds in Australia.
There is another common plant with a commemorative name that is commonly misspelled and mispronounced – Fuchsia is usually pronounced “few-shar” but should be something more like “fook-shar’ because it is named after another European botanist, this time the German botanist Leonhart Fuchs.
Fuchs is best known for his production of a large herbal, listing plants and their medicinal properties, its 500 plant illustrations first published in 1542. One of his colleagues was Otto Brunsfel, commemorated in the Brunsfelsia genus that includes the Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow plant.
There are many species of Fuchsia, mainly from central and South America, although a few extend out into the Pacific, including some interesting New Zealand species. They have not played a part in the development of the garden fuchsia, but they have some interesting differences. Our kotukutuku is by far the tallest of the species, growing up to 15 metres.
Most of the American species are coloured red and purple. This seems to be because they are usually pollinated by hummingbirds, who have a marked preference for those colours. One New Zealand species is one of the very few to have yellow flowers.
The person who decided to name the fuchsia in honour of Fuchs was yet another botanist, this time the Frenchman Charles Plumier. And in keeping with the trend, there is a plant named after him – the frangipani. This is a South American and Caribbean group of plants, valued in warmer climes for its intense scent. The botanical name Plumeria is not commonly used, with frangipani [named after an Italian family who made a fragrance similar to Plumeria] being preferred by most gardeners.
I am sure you will have noticed another common theme in these plants – they are all named by men, and after men! It is difficult to find too many plant genera that were named before 1950 that commemorate women. The Australian Beaufortia, one of the loose collection of shrubs commonly known as bottle brushes, is named after Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort, while the giant water lily that is a feature of many hot houses in municipal parks the worldwide is named after Queen Victoria.
The best-known, Victoria amazonica, has large flowers that open white, then become pink on the second night.
The popular native shrub hebe was named after a Greek goddess but has recently been renamed. However, it has retained its female influence, now bearing the name Veronica, after Saint Veronica. It is one of few.
