Rhododendron and
Azalea News

Ideas for Chapters

Megan, age 9, wants to learn...

Yes, that is exactly correct.  A father was searching the Internet for answers for his nine-year-old daughter who wants to learn more about the life cycle of rhododendrons.  Imagine!  He found the ARS and the editor.  Unfortunately, the request was received while on a European tour and could not be answered in time for Megan's project.

Yes, the ARS can accept a real challenge that young people...even as young as nine...to learn more about the life cycle from seed and/or bulb for plants...and rhododendrons.  Perhaps, one of our dedicated members would like to explain more to this young lady.  You may be introducing her to her life's career in horticulture.

More details will be given by the editor.  Would be thrilled to hear from you.  Then I can write Megan.  Just think of her joy.  Thanks.

The Eureka Chapter has an expert among their group who is a college professor...and loves words.  For the past several years, Bruce Palmer has been broadening the member's knowledge of the world of rhododendrons.  In the June newsletter, he chose to give some history and support.  It seems so appropriate...at this time of year when we are relaxed and enjoying life a little more...to brush up on some of these fine points.

Here's our lesson.  This month's word isn't a single one.  Instead...it is a partial explanation for why there are so many technical terms to dissect...specially in the descriptions of flowers.

We can blame Karl von Linnaeus, the eighteenth century Swedish scientist for the obscure words.  He set up the system of classification we use today, known as binomial nomenclature.

• He decided to simplify a system of naming organisms that had gotten out of hand.
• Each distinct species was named with a lengthy Latin description known as a polynomial.  Latin was used because it was the Lingua Franca among European scientists and clergy of the time.
• Catnip is an example.  Before it was assigned a two-word name it was designated...Nepta floribus interrupte spicatus pedunculatis...a Latin description of the plants flowerings parts.
• Linnaeus started naming each distinct organism with two names: genus and species.
• Any plant whose genus name or binomial name is followed by L. or Linn. was named by Linnaeus.
• The genus Rhododendron L. is an example, as is Rhododendron ponticum Linn.

compare reproductive structures

Linnaeus felt it was necessary to keep the idea of descriptions, so he set up a system of distinguishing one species from another with Latinized words.  For reasons we may never know, Linnaeus decided that in flowering plants, the best way to distinguish one species from another was to compare the reproductive structures.  Some biologists speculate that he may have been obsessed with sex.  In any case, flowering plant species are still distinguished from each other mainly by their flower parts.  It is an exact method for identification...but it makes it quite difficult for us to key out a plant in any botany field manual...if we don't have a flower.

personal example on Bruce's road

Coming down our road recently and spotting the only Rhododendron macrophyllum along it, I thought it might be a good example to use.

English language field guides have anglicized most the original Latin descriptions of the flower parts...but many obscure words remain.  Using just the corolla (Latin: corona, a crown), the petals as a group, for example, we find that Jepson's 1951 Manual of the Flowering Plants of California describes the corolla as "turbinate-campanulate" its broad lobes undulate..."

It sounds like a mess...but if you have the flower in front of you...it works.
-ate after each of the words is from the Latin -atus, meaning possession or likeness.
Turbinate comes from the Latin turbin...that which spins or whirls around, a top.

Campanulate means bell-shaped from the Latin campana...for bell.

Looking at the flower, it seems to taper from a bell-shape to a top-shape, so that portion of the description fits nicely.

If you look at the edges of the flower petals, they are indeed Undulate, from the Latin undulus...wavy or the later French Unda*...a wave.

So...without looking at the rest of the flower description...especially when, in this case, several texts have differing descriptions...but they certainly help when we try to identify a particular rhododendron.

An interesting side issue about this particular species is that the 1951 edition of Jepson's manual called it Rhododendron californicum, so named by J. H Hooker in 1855.  The name is still listed as a synonym in Hitchcock and Cronquist's Flora of the Pacific Northwest.  The change is due to another rule of binomial nomenclature, priority, a different interesting topic.

Bruce likes to muse a little...

Which gives me an excuse to muse a little.  The argument for continuing with Latin botanical forms is still strong.  While a relatively few plants are popular...and so have acquired different, commonly used names in different languages.  [pansy (ng)=pensee (fr)=amor perfeito (port), for example] the vast bulk are known only by name to the well-educated who appreciate the ability to talk across borders without going to the dictionary to verify whatever the German (for example) might be for boletus edulis, or amanita phalloides.  Besides, as the article points out, the systems works pretty well once you understand a few of the rules.

argument remains the same...

The argument is the same for all sorts of specialized vocabularies: biological, medical, astronomical terms are complex enough as it is...and would be utterly impossible if they varied from language to language.  Latin roots are the easiest to use since they...along with all the Greek stuff that comes to us from Latin...are still far and away the most commonly understood across the world for use about everything we call... civilized.

* From the editor's correspondence

As with most science, there is always room for clarification, illumination, and addendum...David Wilson, Eureka Chapter member, a lawyer, a word-junkie, and linguaphile comments:

"Unda" is good, solid Latin for "wave."
"Unda" is a "little wave."
French is "onde", an obvious descendant...but a cousin, not a direct ancestor of the English forms, which all seem to come from the Latin rather than the French.

Now, the question is...did you learn from your lesson today, or do you need to go back and review.  These two gentlemen from the Eureka Chapter, Bruce Palmer and David Wilson will keep us on our toes in forthcoming R&A News.  I can remember a college professor  challenging us to learn five new words a day...and to put them into practice.  These fellows offer us this challenge in the wonderful world of rhododendrons!  Thanks heaps.

Do take notice and think about this

Kindness is more than deeds.
It is an attitude,
an expression,
a look...a touch.
It is anything that lifts
another person.

-- C. Neil Strait