Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
rate this answer
Monday - March 21, 2005
From: San Diego, CA
Region: California
Topic: General Botany
Title: Smarty Plants on aceae
Answered by: Damon Waitt
QUESTION:
How is the family suffix "-aceae", as in Asteraceae, pronounced? I find disagreeing claims in my searches- "ay-see-ee" and "ay-see-ay" seem to be the most common, but I've also seen just "ay-see". Is there any agreement on this among botanists?ANSWER:
Not really, though I rarely encounter the "ay-see" pronunciation. Here are afew tips to keep in mind regarding pronunciation:1. classical scholars don't always agree on pronunciation
2. professional botanists vary substantially in their pronunciation
3. individual botanists rarely are completely consistent in pronunciation
4. people tend to pronounce names the way they first learned them regardless of any subsequently-encountered rules.
Click here for some great guides to botanical pronunciation from Google.
More General Botany Questions
What does spp. stand for in Paspalum spp? From Arlington, TX.
August 11, 2010 - What does the spp stand for when talking about Paspalum spp?
view the full question and answer
Copper beech
May 12, 2005 - Hi, I work for a youth camp in southeastern Pennsylvania. The property for the
camp was purchased from a farmer in 1958. The farmer was a collecter of
unusual trees and one of the trees on our prop...
view the full question and answer
USDA Plant Hardiness Zone of Worcester, Massachusetts
November 11, 2008 - What zone is Worcester, Massachusetts?
view the full question and answer
Geographic determination of flower colors
August 30, 2009 - Hi Mr. Smarty Plants,
I'd like to find out if there are any correlation between geographic location and the statistic of flower(native) colors. Here in the Rockies, there seems to be a lot more ye...
view the full question and answer
Which one is huajillo and which one is guajillo?
November 19, 2013 - Recently I attended a field trip to the Leonard Garden at the Kleberg Institute in Kingsville. I took a picture of a tree that was referred to as Tenaza or huajillo. Later I took another photo of a ...
view the full question and answer
| Support the Wildflower Center by Donating Online or Becoming a Member today. |