Latin for Gardeners: Over 3,000 Plant Names Explained and Explored

Decode Your Garden: A Gardener’s Guide to Latin Plant Names

Since Latin became the standard language for plant naming in the eighteenth century, it has been intrinsically linked with botany. And while mastery of the classical language may not be a prerequisite for tending perennials, all gardeners stand to benefit from learning a bit of Latin and its conventions in the field. Without it, they might buy a “Hellebores foetidus “and be unprepared for its fetid smell, or a “Potentilla r…