Plants aren’t always named to honor someone, sometimes they’re named to get even. Botanists have quietly immortalized rivals by attaching their names to weeds, dull plants, or species that smell bad. Carl Linnaeus who was best known as the father of modern biological classification in the 1700s, was accused of using plant names to poke at colleagues he disliked. Once published, those names stick, sometimes for centuries. It’s a reminder that plant taxonomy isn’t just about science, it’s also about ego, rivalry, and the long memory of Latin.
Growing Home - Taxonomy Isn't Just Abut Science
