From time to time on this website we mention the confusion that can occur from using common names. What happens often is that a single species may have multiple common names, and that condition can develop even in a relatively small geographic area, particularly where mountains or forests historically have limited access by one human…
Read more
The Jujube tree is a fruit tree in the Rhamnaceae, or Buckthorn Family, that grows very well in southern Florida. Its origin is southern Asia and for 4,000 years it has been cultivated in China, where there are 400 known varieties. It can attain a height of 20 ft. and a width of 12 ft., and features shiny green…
Read more
How can a street a mere block long connect Paris and Miami? The idea seems preposterous. Clue: Take a peek into the botanical world. Victor Jacquemont (1801-1832) was a well-known and well-connected French biologist who has been described as “the most charismatic, tragic, and energetic natural historian of his generation.” During a brief stay in…
Read more
The investigative staff at Richard Lyons’ Nursery has never seen anything like it. Spondias dulcis has more names than an art thief on the run from Interpol: Pomme cythere in Trinidad and Tobago, cas mango in Cameroon and the Maldive Islands, juplón in Costa Rica, buah long long among the Chinese in Singapore, cajá manga…
Read more
In the ideal world, when a plant name is changed, you’d prefer for the new moniker to be simpler than the old one. But life isn’t always fair, and there’s no better example than that of the plant commonly called Blackberry Jam Fruit. Long known as Randia formosa, the species is now named, alas, Rosenbergiodendron…
Read more