Tim Mills

@roots@stefanbohacek.online So Dad has made walking sticks, little fold-out table things, and other stuff. And he always calls it "diamond salix", because of course that sounds cooler than simply "diamond willow". Anyway, that's why I will always connect the "Salix" genus name to willows.

@eanakashima@hachyderm.io I first learned this in a "regular" (not whitewater) canoe course. Important for survival there! I can totally see the transfer to business and other spheres - thanks for sharing!

@roots Common names: Scots pine (UK), Scotch pine (US), Baltic pine, European red pine. Also (rare or archaic) Scots fir, Scotch fir, European redwood. Not to be confused with the SS Baltic Pine (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Auriga_(1944)) one of five names of a German cargo ship that operated from 1944 to 1965. Fossil evidence says this species has been around for at least 2.6 million years! But mostly, check out those roots! What a story they seem to tell! (My source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_sylvestris)

@nikink More options to add: [Canada] 🇨🇦 English (simplified traditional) [Scotland] 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 English (traditional explicit)

@KerryMitchell@mastodon.social @Gargron@mastodon.social Saying that it's hard is not the same as saying that it's impossible.

@chronodm@glammr.us @amyfou@lingo.lol obvs. Gotta say, I wasn't expecting that! Love it - it's different from every reform proposal I've ever seen!

@Paulatics@mstdn.ca A refreshingly calm and human approach to this polarizing issue!

@roots Common names: dyer's greenweed, dyer's broom, dyer's whin, waxen woad, waxen wood Used in yellow dye, and for green when combined with woad - which I learn is still cultivated as a blue dye for (among other things) printer ink! Woad link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isatis_tinctoria You have to check out the GBIF link - this dyer's greenweed has SO MANY names in Welsh! (https://www.gbif.org/species/5347612) I count about 9, *plus* several apparently minor variants!

@roots Common names: reed canary grass, gardener's-garters, ribbon grass Unusually, the Wikipedia article also gives common names in several other languages. The GBIF gives a pile of variants and alternatives in French, plus some others. Between them, there are way more than I can fit in this post so I'll just link them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalaris_arundinacea https://www.gbif.org/species/5289756 Apparently, there is disagreement on whether it's native to both North America and Eurasia. Another intriguing story!

@roots Common names: Canada bluegrass, flattened meadow-grass, (compressed) wiregrass, flat-stemmed bluegrass. Despite that first common name, it is native to Europe. That's colonialism for you. I certainly know a whole swathe of white folks here in Alberta who would like to claim more rights as Canadians than indigenous people. (Also, that genus name, Poa, is the Greek word for fodder, which we've encountered on other samples recently.) GBIF: https://www.gbif.org/species/2704265

@roots Common names: root parsley A subspecies of common parsley. That varietal name, "radicosum", had me thinking "radish", and overall it looks a bit like a parsnip, but those are both different things.

@roots The genus does have a common English name: spurge This apparently derives from the sap's effectiveness as a purgative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euphorbia

@roots Common names: giant sequoia, giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Wellingtonia. But my personal favorite (from GBIF) is: bigtree Yes! I have no personal experience with this tree, but by all accounts, this is the species that deserves that name. Bigtree. Absolutely. 💯

@roots Common name: European larch. It has distinct subspecies, named for their different ranges: the Carpathian larch and the Polish larch. I know larch (genus Larix) from a specimen my parents planted in our yard when I lived at home. Soft-needled conifer that loses its leaves in winter. I can't say whether ours is this species or some other member of the genus. It reliably turns a vivid yellow in the fall before losing its leaves - quite lovely!

@roots Common name: Davall's sedge. All the names in other languages on GBIF seem to be translations of this. Probably after Swiss-English botanist Edmund Davall (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Davall) but I can't verify that. Found across Europe, but apparently went extinct in the British Isles in 1852 when the one place it grew was drained to build houses! (It is in no way endangered - it's still plentiful across the rest of Europe. That was just the only place it was found in Britain.

@roots Common names: Scotch laburnum, Scottish laburnum, alpine laburnum It has a kind of classy ring to it: "laburnum". Like some French-descended British noble? Also, I'm gonna include the Welsh name from GBIF, because I can: Tresi Aur Alpaidd https://www.gbif.org/species/5356343

@roots Common names: pale persicaria, pale smartweed, curlytop knotweed, willow weed, curltop ladysthumb, curlytop smartweed, dock-leaf smartweed, nodding smartweed, pale smartweed Several from Wikipedia, several others from GBIF (overlapping list). I'm leaving out the non-English names for this one, but find German, Italian, and French names here: https://www.gbif.org/species/7762353

@roots Common names: common mouse-ear chickweed, big chickweed German: Gewöhnliches Hornkraut (I'm hoping that's the same species in GBIF as in Wikipedia!) Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerastium_holosteoideshttps://www.gbif.org/species/6364031

@roots And yes, as with the previous plant, this one has a taxonomic synonym: Oxybasis glauca. That's the primary one on Wikipedia, and Chenopodium glaucum is secondary. I like "Chenopodium", because it translates directly as "goosefoot", which is the common name for that genus. "Oxybasis" sounds more chemical - meh!

@roots Common name: wooly yarrow Here's the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achillea_tomentosa

@roots@stefanbohacek.online I love the top-down view as a complement to the cross-sectional view!

@roots@stefanbohacek.online Common names: alpine bearberry, mountain bearberry, black berberry. Related to heather. Found in circumpolar regions including Russia, Scotland, Greenland, Northern Canada, and Alaska. I can't say if I've encountered it personally, but I have certainly seen scrub plants that (to my untrained eye) look similar to the images on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctous_alpina)

I’ve been loving the images from @roots@stefanbohacek.online. Some of the plants there have even inspired me to interact a little. One thing that I thought I’d like to see is the common names of the plants depicted, alongside their Latin binomials. As a linguist, I’m fascinated by the way we use different names for the same thing, and how we decide when to use each name. I’m also intrigued by the feeling many have that the more formal, inaccessible name is often considered more “real”. (5/8)

@mbonsma@mastodon.social This is very timely - thank you! One of my favorite holiday traditions will now be a bit more orderly. 🧩❤️

The German and Dutch names seem to be talking about "wolf's milk" - not sure what that's about.