In article ,
K writes:
|
| Speaking as an amateur, start by learning about families and genera.
| It's made easier by families being given names ending with 'aceae' - so
| Rosa is the genus, Rosaceae the family (which includes other genera such
| as Malus (apples), Pyrus (pears), Sorbus - rowans and whitebeams)
|
| Carrots, parsnips, fennel, dill, parsley are all in the umbellifer
| family, which appears now to be called Apiaceae. Many of our other herbs
| - mint, marjoram, oregano, savory - are Lamiaceae, named after the genus
| Lamium which includes the silver leaved dead nettle used as a ground
| cover in gardens.

Unfortunately, quite a lot of the family names have been created by the
rabid renamers - Apiaceae and Lamiaceae are two - and many/most books
use the old names (try Umbelliferae and Labiatae). There didn't seem
to be any reason for that except dogma, and the old names were often
usefully descriptive (as in those cases). What is more, the old rules
still seem to be valid, unlike for genera and species, so you have to
learn two schemes :-(

If I recall, some family names have changed half a dozen times, as the
rigid application of the rules dictated, but I don't think that many
of those have impacted most gardeners. Except for the Leguminosae
(a.k.a. Fabaceae a.k.a. Papilionaceae a.k.a. Caesalpiniaceae?), which
I have seen cause considerable confusion.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.