Common Name Conundrums

all right Gardening‘s written matter editor , Suzanne Noel , and I often get mired in minutia ( “ Suzanne , should that be minutia ? ” Long conversation ensues … ) . These matters often send me on short journeying of research that enlighten and fascinate me . The latest conundrum involve whether or not to capitalize some vulgar plant names .

For representative , we recollect that the parole “ hinoki ” ( in Hinoki cypress , the common name ofChamaecyparis obtusa ) should be capitalized , assuming that Hinoki is a city or sight in Japan . But the other day , we suddenly said , “ await a minute — is that right ? ” Turns out that hinoki is just a common name , sort of like maple or oak , so we do n’t need to give it a big heat content , after all . ( By the room , hinoki is the wood of option for traditional Nipponese soak tubs . Who knew ? )

Today ’s mystery story was even more gripping . Should we capitalise the S in Shasta daisy ( LeucanthemumXsuperbumcvs . ) ? I started trolling the Net and name , in an excerpt ofa book by horticultural wizard Luther Burbank , that Burbank developed the Shasta daisy around the good turn of the 19th 100 . More searching revealed that Luther Burbank lived inSanta Rosa , Californiaand named his new daisy after Mount Shasta inSiskiyou County , California . Soooo , we now get laid to capitalise the “ Shasta ” in Shasta daisy !

I ’m on a roll now . Anybody have any other itty - weensy horticultural whodunit I can solve ? !

( P.S. Per Suzanne : “ It ’s ‘ minutiae . ' ” )

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