Day 289: I know I do a lot of ranting about using the Latin epithets rather than common names, probably just as often as I rail at taxonomists for employing unhelpful terms like "smithii" instead of words which tell you something about a species' field characteristics, so today I'd like to demonstrate how Latin guided me to the identification of one of Team Biota's Mystery Plants. When we first observed this unknown growing along the roadside, its buds were tightly closed. The foliage was difficult to see in amongst a heavy growth of thimbleberry, but as I observed it, I made note that it looked rather like that of a birch tree. The plant was obviously neither a birch nor a tree, but that information didn't really narrow the options. With only foliage to go on, the field manuals weren't much help, so when I got home and processed the pictures, I sent one off to Arnie and to David at the Burke with the comment that, "If I was a taxonomist, this would be 'somethingoranother betulifolia.'" And then I settled in with the guides, determined to find it if I had to do it the "inexpert" way: paging through and looking at each picture. Then on an off chance, I decided to browse the Burke gallery first with a search for "betulifolia" ("birchlike foliage") in Descriptions, and lo and behold! up popped a solitary Spiraea. Now it must be said that "betulifolia" is appended to the binomial as a subspecies or variety, and the accepted name is the short form "Spiraea lucida," but by using the informative Latin, I reached the identity of the plant without a lot of needless thrashing around. David confrmed my findings and Arnie said he was highly amused that my suggestion of "betulifolia" had been spot on. Latin! I love it!
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