Common names of plants often vary widely from place to place, even
within rather limited areas. Frequently-occurring and widely-known
species may have local names, or the same name may be used for several
species. Common names, therefore, often fail to identify plants
accurately. That makes it difficult to communicate about plants; the
confusion may even discontinue attempts to convey ideas about the
subject. Conversations may shift to a subject with an adequate common
nomenclature.
Scientific names are essential in formal writing. When common names are
to be used, as in less formal publications, scientific names must also
be given either at the place where the common ones first appear in the
paper, in a footnote, or in an appended list. Only scientific names
identify the species for all readers. In completely informal writing
for a broad area, scientific names may be omitted.
Since common names are so widely used, they should be used as uniformly
as possible. The following common names are considered “standardized”
for all writing in the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station and may
also be used as a guide in teaching. A single common name is given to
each plant listed if it has such a name.
This list grew from an earlier Kansas list of grasses and legumes that
emphasized chiefly range and pasture plants. It is extended here to
include most plant families and genera that occur in Kansas and many
species that do not necessarily occur in Kansas but may be important or
closely related to those listed. Obviously, not all Kansas plants could
be included, and therefore many minor plants have been omitted. Species
not obviously important had to be somewhat arbitrary. Perhaps certain
species listed could have been omitted and others not included might
have been added. The list can, therefore, grow or be altered as need
for change is shown. If further information on common names is needed,
the Kelsey and Dayton 1942 edition of Standardized Plant Names[3]
should be consulted.
=Genus Common Names=
In preparing this list, we attempted to give a single common name to
each genus and to use it in connection with common names for each
of the species listed under that genus. For example, brome for the
genus, _Bromus_, and various species such as smooth brome and hairy
brome. Thus, there are two words for species names. However, common
names of some species are single words and may not bear the generic
name at all; for example, switchgrass, curlymesquite, catchflygrass,
darnel, needleandthread, berseem, and horsebean. Some genera have
more than one common name, but in that case the genus is subdivided
into different types, each with its own common name. For example,
most species of the genus _Panicum_ are called panicum, but certain
others are witchgrass; _Melica_ is melic, but bulbous species of that
genus are called oniongrass; and _Setaria_ is bristlegrass, but the
name millet is applied to certain ones. Some poisonous species of
_Astragalus_ are called loco, but nonpoisonous ones are milkvetch and
the selenium-gathering ones, poisonvetch. In a few cases the same
common name is applied to two genera, but that generally occurs only
when the genera involved are closely related. They may formerly have
been considered a single genus.
The words tree, grass, bean, seed, etc. are combined with key words
to make common names of many genera and species. Examples of the
former are dropseed, cupgrass, tanglehead, peavine, wildindigo,
coffeetree, and sensitivebriar; and of the latter, breadroot scurfpea,
splitbeard bluestem, shortawn foxtail, and smoothseed wildbean.
Hyphens are avoided except in a few cases where they are used to make
spelling, meaning, or pronunciation more clearly understood. Some
examples are s-curve threeawn, blue-eyedgrass, climbing-buckwheat,
dutchmans-breeches, snow-on-the-mountain, fat-hen saltbrush,
false-alyssum.
=Species Common Names=
The common name for an individual species is a contraction of the
genus common name and, in most cases, a descriptive adjective for a
particular species. An example is the common name for _Bromus inermis_
The common name for the genus is brome and the descriptive adjective
associated with the species name _inermis_ is smooth, hence smooth
brome is the common name for that species.
In many cases a satisfactory common name did not exist for a particular
species, yet the species name’s English meaning described the plant
well. Such plants were given common names based on the meaning of
their species name. An example is _Lygodesmia rostrata_. It has no
satisfactory common name. In this publication it is called beaked
skeletonplant, based on the English meaning of _rostrata_ and the
accepted common name for the genus, skeletonplant.
=Capitalization=
In general, capitals are avoided for common plant names. They are not
used where proper nouns are combined with such words as grass, tree,
bean, etc., for example, bermudagrass, indiangrass, johnsongrass, but
are used when the name is that of a country, state, or other place
and is a separate word as in Virginia wildrye, Texas bean, California
burclover, and Missouri milkvetch. They are not used, however, when
the name is derived from a man’s name; for example, lambert crazyweed,
dillen tickclover, chewings fescue, and lehmann lovegrass. Capitals
are, of course, used for proper names of strains or varieties, but such
usage is beyond the scope of this list. The few exceptions to all of
these “rules” are dictated by firmly established usage.
=Authorities=
To identify each species as definitely as possible, authorities are
given for scientific names. Authorities for grass names are from
Hitchcock’s 1951 manual.[4] The others were compiled from various
sources by Dr. L. C. Hulbert, Department of Botany, Kansas State
University, chiefly from these sources: Gray’s Manual, 8th ed.,[5]
The New Illustrated Britton and Brown,[6] and Harrington’s Manual.[7]
Occasionally other sources were used for a few or for single species.
Since authorities were taken directly from the various sources
without change, some differences in abbreviation occur. For example,
Hitchcock’s manual abbreviates Humboldt, Bonpland, and Kunth as H.B.K.,
while most other manuals consulted use HBK. Certain other names may be
spelled fully in one manual and abbreviated in others.
=Common Name Sources=
Several workers helped with selecting plants to be included and common
names for them. For the most part, the common names are those used in
Kelsey and Dayton, Standardized Plant Names (SPN).[8] However, common
names of some species are so different and are so firmly entrenched
in common usage that the names given in SPN could not be used in this
list. An example is “broomsedge” for _Andropogon virginicus_. In SPN
it is “yellowsedge bluestem,” a name never heard in the area this list
serves.
=ACKNOWLEDGMENTS=
Appreciation is expressed to those who aided in selecting both plants
and their common names:
The late F. W. Albertson, Biology Department, Fort Hays Kansas State
College
L. E. Anderson, Agronomy Department, Kansas State University, now at
University of Missouri, Columbia