Day 113: My "relearning curve" has flatlined when it comes to this beautifully lush Usnea. Once known as Usnea dasopoga, it was frequently misspelled by amateurs and academics alike as "dasypoga," and was eventually renamed Usnea filipendula. Like many other things in botany, it has had a wealth of other synonyms attached to it over the years, but fairly recently, its name has reverted to the original. Do you think I can remember "Usnea dasopoga" when the need arises? Not hardly! I persist in calling it "filipendula," preferring the euphony of the word. The retired term is particularly descriptive; "filum" also gives us the English "filament,"and "pendulus" means "hanging." Indeed, Usnea fi...(dammit)...appears as a graceful mass of hanging threads, especially when hosted on its favourite medium, spruce. As for "dasopoga" or its misspelling, I can find no etymology, none whatsoever. It seems to be a nonsense word, the creation of a taxonomist who was too deeply in his cups, armed dangerously with a load of Scrabble tiles. Without roots to support it, "dasopoga" refuses to grow in my mental garden.
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