Jess N writes

Hello! First post!

After ages of looking through lists and lists I've figured out which
plant it was I was trying to Identify but I'm really bad at remembering
latins so I was wondering if any of you know the common name for
Sisyrinchium striatum?
Or any other name they have for it just to help me remember it!

It really is best to try to remember the latin. It's the one name that
will identify the plant without ambiguity, so you and whoever you're
talking to both know exactly what you are talking about. For example,
Gillyflowers can be either pinks or wallflowers depending on the
speaker. And one of the Sisyrhinchiums is known as 'blue eyed grass'
which is plain silly because it certainly isn't a grass!

Also the latin tells you a lot about the plant, because it tells you
which other plants are related to it, and therefore what characteristics
and growing preferences they may have in common.

It helps to remember the latin if you start to learn what some of it
means - especially since taxonomists often name plants to describe some
significant feature - the 'striatum' bit refers to the striped leaves.

Sisyrhinchium I grant you is a bit of mouthful. According to wikipedia,
the rhinchium bit is 'nose' (think of rhinoceros or rhinitis) and the
sis is pig - pigs like to grub the roots.
--
Kay