Question: Do you have special names for plants

Zarah Pattison answered on 18 Nov 2016:

Hi Linz,

We use scientific names to identify plants, for example Himalyan Balsam is a ‘common’ name for Impatiens glandulifera. These names mean that everyone knows exactly what species you are talking about as the same plant can have many different names in different countries of even within different places in the UK. The scientific names are based on latin or greek words and are unique, its interesting as they also tell you something about the plant, for example colour: albus=white, and aureue=goldern, or what is feels like, hirtus=hairy and pilosus= sticky.