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I'll TRY to learn the scientific names of all my plants and will start with all my new "palms" (really). Just be patient, as I'm not likely to learn fast.
I think the hardest thing for me is how hard it is to figure out the pronunciation of the scientific name. I don't "sight read" very well, so I should probably go find a site that has an audio of the name as well.
Don't be concerned about pronunciation perfection! Just pretend the latin binomials are Harry Potter spells -- Hy-o-PHOR-be la-gen-i-CAUL-is! I sometimes stress the wrong syllable, but it's better to mispronounce the correct latin name than to perfectly pronounce a useless common name. I hear variations on pronunciation even among professional growers and professors, so don't sweat it. I had always heard and pronounced Li-CUA-la; then was very surprised to hear Andrew Henderson (palm book author) pronounce it Lic-u-AL-a, but maybe that's the British accent?
KiminPL - I'm not as worried about HOW I say it as I am in figuring out how to say it (no matter how it sounds!)... did that make sense? I'm one of those people that HAS to know, at least silently in my head, how to say a word to remember the word. So, in other words (haha), if I'm reading a book and I'm stumbling over a person's name I have to stop, dissect the name, and come up with a way to silently pronounce the name so that it doesn't disrupt my reading flow and so that I can remember it. It most likely isn't the way the author wanted it pronounced, but as long as I get it, it doesn't matter. Scientific names are long and usually make no sense to me, so this will take some getting use to.
LAKelley - Keep it simple, start with the plants you currently own. You should know the names of all your children. ; ) Unless you are already far down the road of collecting, you probably won't have more than 20 palm names to remember. Then every time you adopt a new 'child', memorize the name. They are much easier to remember if they are in your garden and you are checking on their growth nearly every day. I also keep a list of my palms - name, when and where acquired, size, date planted, etc. This reinforces the use of the latin names. Click on this link for help with pronunciation and understanding of the latin terms: http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=4210
Thanks KiminPL... that's what I am doing. I'm in the process of writing down all my palm names and I'm determined to learn them :-) Thanks for the link!!
