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2018 How Cornus Florida Got its Name W. John Hayden University of Richmond, [email protected]
Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.richmond.edu/biology-faculty-publications Part of the Plant Sciences Commons
Recommended Citation Hayden, W. John. “How Cornus florida Got its Name.” Sempervirens Quarterly Spring 2018: 5-6.
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Biology at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Biology Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Sempervirens, Spring 2018 5 How Cornus florida Got Its Name Article and illustrations by W. John Hayden, Botany Chair
n 1753, Swedish botanist Carolus of Dogwood known to Linnaeus were naeus to compile a catalogue of his ILinnaeus was the first to apply Cornus canadensis (Bunchberry) and living plant collections, published as the scientific nameCornus florida its European counterpart, Cornus Hortus Cliffortianus. Cornus florida to the plant we know as Flowering suecica. Of these three, Cornus florida is treated on page 38. Dogwood. That simple and straight- easily stood out as the species with the • Hort. ups. 29. Hortus Upsaliensis, forward declarative sentence belies largest involucre. The other descriptive published by Linnaeus in 1748. For the complexity and obscurity of how element in this polynomial pertains to many years, he practiced medicine Linnaeus named this and nearly 6,000 bract shape; “obversely cordate” refers and taught botany at Uppsala, Swe- other plants in his seminal work, Spe to the notch at each bract’s apex, i.e., den. In 1741 he took on the respon- cies Plantarum. To understand what the portion that developed first and sibility of overseeing its botanical Linnaeus actually did requires a dive served as a winter bud scale. Most garden, which he reorganized to into the arcane world of 18th-century represent his ideas about plant rela- botany. And that is what this article tionships. Hortus Upsaliensis is his endeavors to accomplish, to explain catalog of plants in this garden; Flow- how Cornus florida, the 2018 VNPS ering Dogwood appears on page 29. Wildflower of the Year, got its name. • Roy. Lugdb. 249. Flora Leydensis Before Species Plantarum was pub- Prodromus, published by Adriaan lished, scholarly names for plants were Royen in 1740. Royen was a profes- polynomials, essentially descriptive sor of botany at Leiden and well phrases, in Latin, used to distinguish acquainted with both Cliffort and each plant from all others known at Linnaeus. Evidently, Cornus florida the time. Polynomial names are (and was cultivated in Leiden, known to were), downright cumbersome. And Royen, and included on page 249 of to make matters worse, they were not his Leiden flora. One might wonder standardized. Often, different bota- Cornus floridaflower buds surrounded how “Lugdb.” refers to a flora of nists would describe the same plant by by four involucral bracts derived from Leiden. At one time Leiden was asso- overwintering bud scales. emphasizing different features, coining ciated with the location of an ancient different polynomials for the same leaves with a cordate (heartlike) shape Roman outpost, a fort called Lugdu plant. It may be a surprise to learn are widest at the base with a notch num Batavorum; it is now understood that Linnaeus, the originator of bino- where the blade meets the petiole; in that the ancient fort lay not within the mial scientific names of organisms, Flowering Dogwood’s bracts, however, city limits of Leiden, but some short also used polynomials in his early the widest portion is above the middle, distance away. works. In fact, these cumbersome and the notch is at the apex, hence • Gron. virg. 17. Flora Virginica, pub- phrase names are at the heart of each these bracts are obversely cordate. lished as two volumes by Jan Frederik plant recorded in Species Plantarum. Following this phrase name for Gronovius in 1739 and 1743, based on In essence, the first Linnaean binomial Flowering Dogwood, Linnaeus cites, the work of colonial Virginia botanist names were derived from polynomials. in highly abbreviated form, other Cornus florida is the first of five published works that used the same species of Cornus included in Species name for this plant: Plantarum, and Linnaeus’s polynomi- • Hort. cliff. 38. Hortus Cliffortianus, al for it is Cornus arborea, involucro published by Linnaeus in 1737. Johan The entry for Cornus floridain Species maximo; foliolis obverse cordatis, nes Burman Cliffort was a wealthy Plantarum, consisting of two polynomial reasonably translated as, “Dogwood Dutch merchant who had amassed a names, references to earlier publications trees, with the largest involucre; large collection of herbarium speci- using those polynomials, and the marginal note, “florida,” which, in combination with involucral bracts obversely cordate.” mens and living plants in his gardens the genus name, forms the binomial for the The only other large-bracted species and hot houses. Cliffort hired Lin- 2018 VNPS Wildflower of the Year. 6 Sempervirens, Spring 2018
John Clayton. Flowering Dogwood fer, imperialism) meant that scientific appears on page 17. exploration of global biodiversity was The entry in Species Plantarum poised to bring to light staggering includes a second polynomial for numbers of plants. Cornus florida: Cornus mas virgin It is tempting to suppose that Lin- iana, flosculis in corymbo digestis a naeus realized that traditional poly- perianthio tetrapetalo albo radiatim nomials were inadequate to the task cinctis. That this phrase name is of providing unique and universally listed second indicates that Linnaeus accepted names for the profusion of considered it synonymous with (and Two flower clusters of the European plants that grace this good Earth. But secondary to) the first. This synonym Cornus mas, Cornelian Cherry. Notice the we can only speculate, because we is translated as follows: “Cornelian four small bracts derived from winter bud have no explanation from Linnaeus dogwood from Virginia, small flowers scales and the relatively loose aggregation himself. What we do have is the fact arranged in corymbs surrounded by of small individual flowers. Generic that Linnaeus did initiate binomial similarity between Cornus mas and Cornus a perianth of four radiating white floridawas readily apparent to European names. Perplexingly, what he did petals.” Cornus mas, the Cornelian botanists of the 18th century. looks like an afterthought. Having Cherry, is an edible-fruited Dogwood assembled the catalogue of polyno- native to Europe and southwest Asia; ence to Flowering Dogwood in the mials for all the plants known to Eu- like Cornus florida it has small yellow botanical literature. ropean botany at the time, he added flower clusters subtended by four • Catesb. car. 27. t. 27. Natural a single word, usually an adjective, bracts, but in the European plant the History of Carolina, Florida, and the in the margin opposite the first (i.e., bracts are much smaller and yellow, Bahama Islands, published by Mark the preferred) polynomial for each and the flowers are not as tightly Catesby; Cornus florida appears in species included in Species Plantarum. crowded together. In essence, this plate 27 (with a Mockingbird) of For Flowering Dogwood, this is the second polynomial describes Flower- volume 1, published in 1730. word florida, aligned with “Cornus ing Dogwood as a Virginian version The first portion of the last line of arborea, involucro maximo; foliolis of Cornelian Cherry. (Of course, we the Species Plantarum entry, Hab- obverse cordatis.” Notice that florida, now know that the bracts are not itat in Virginia, is self-explanatory. like all the species epithets initiated in technically floral organs, so reference Following, there is a cryptic symbol. Species Plantarum, appears in slightly to them as perianth is, morphologi- That symbol, widely used in medieval smaller type than the bulk of the text. cally, incorrect). As with the first poly- alchemy for the element lead, was We will probably never know nomial, what follows are references to also associated with the planet Sat- whether introducing binomial names books that use this phrase name: urn; in Species Plantarum, Linnaeus was truly an afterthought, or wheth- • Pluk. alm. 120. Almagestum botani adopted it to indicate a woody plant. er it was part of Linnaeus’s plan all cum, published by Leonard Plukenet Linnaeus was meticulous in his along. Whatever his motivation, the in 1696. Plukenet was royal professor use of polynomials and, excellent result was brilliant: binomial names of botany and gardener to Queen scholar that he was, took great pains are much easier to remember and yet Mary of England. Botanically, he is to align the various polynomials used are descriptive, albeit succinctly so! best known for his lavishly illustrated by others during the preceding half Botanists never looked back; with the books of exotic plants. His first three century. His painstaking adherence to publication of Species Plantarum and volumes were published under the ti- polynomials was fully consistent with its marginal, one-word, descriptive tle Phytographia. The fourth volume, that of his contemporaries as well as insertions, binomial names became which included Cornus florida in his own, earlier, works. Polynomials firmly established. Zoology followed plate 120, was originally titled Alma were, quite simply, the standard of the suit five years later with the 10th edi- gestum botanicum. Similar volumes day. But it must have been taxing to tion of Linnaeus’s Systema Naturae. with other titles followed, but all were keep some 6,000 cumbersome phrase Plants, notably, were first, and our republished in 1720 under the origi- names and their equally complicat- Wildflower of the Year,Cornus flori nal name, Phytographia. Plukenet’s ed synonyms straight. And we must da, was in the first wave of binomial Almagestum botanicum probably remember that ongoing 18th-century names to be used in the study and contains the earliest published refer- European colonialism (or, if you pre- documentation of biodiversity. v