Formerly Known As...

Day 249: You'll find it happens a lot. One field guide lists a plant under one name, and a different field guide will call it something else. It can be very confusing, particularly to beginners who don't understand that taxonomy is a highly plastic discipline. Many times, plants will be reclassified as science discovers they are genetically linked to a different family than previously thought. Other times, a name change is functional, rendered in a new form to be more descriptive of the species. Common names...well, it's best we don't even go down that road. Plants entirely unrelated to one another may bear the same common name.

Case in point for fluctuating Latin: Silene latifolia alba, formerly known as Lychnis alba. Genus Lychnis is closely related to Genus Silene, the points of differentiation being the number of styles (the structure which bears the stigma) and the shape of the seed capsule. If you think the Latin is confusing, try the common names: White Campion, Cockle, Catchfly, Evening Lychnis (a reference to its prior and now outdated taxonomy). Who would think a little white flower could be so problematical? If you will forgive me the cross-referenced wordplay (she said with a wink), it would seem that this non-native species must not have been properly introduced.