You really shouldn't make excuses for the sorry state of horticultural
knowledge unless you are willing to accept the blame for it being so bad.

Horticulture has long been only the idiot stepchild of botany when it should
be applied botany.

Most of the new gardening books are only lame rehashing of the older
obsolete books with more pictures with little or no effort made to bring the
information up-to-date.

The commercial trade is in most cases even worse. They are just hustling
plants with little or no regard for the plants being correctly named. Only
the specialty nurseries make an effort to have plants with proper names.
Even many of them are still using obsolete or fictitious names.

There is the attitude in the trade that there is no money to be made in
striving for accuracy nor does the public demand it. Actually correctly
named and documented "heirloom" plants are much more valuable than mass
produced garbage plants of dubious origin.


"Pam - gardengal" wrote in message
news:OEZ0d.178460$mD.2500@attbi_s02...

"Cereus-validus" wrote in message
m...
Despite the fact that the average gardener has absolutely no idea why
any
plant is so named the way it is, I will tell you why.

Bottom line:

Type species for genus Sedum L. is Sedum acre L. and is a dwarf
evergreen
perennial with connate kyphocarpic carpels.

Genus Hylotelephium H.Ohba (formerly Sedum section Telephium) are
deciduous
perennials, usually with a tuberous rootstock, and with separate
stipitate
(slender stalked) carpels.

It should be obvious that the growth form of Hylotelephium is very
different
from that of typical Sedum.

Dissect the flowers and you will the differences between the two genera.

While this is all well and good in the interest of taxonomic accuracy, you
will not find these plants in the commercial trade listed under this name,
nor will you find Chamaecyparis nootkatensis listed as Xanocyparis, or
Platycladus listed as Biota or seldom Cimicifuga listed as Actaea or even
very often Clematis paniculata correctly labeled as C. terniflora. Old
habits die hard.