One of the classes I'm taking at TAFE is Plant ID. We are given a set list to memorise plant's appearance, Common name and Binomial name (biological name). Our assignment was to present our flower-pressings of a couple of plants we chose for ourselves and wrote up info on them. That was fun! Microwaving leaves, pressing and changing tissues for weeks, gluing them onto the herberium board for presentation.
But... Xanthostemon chrysanthus... what? It's easier to understand what it means if you know that in Greek: 'xanthos' means 'yellow', 'stemon' means 'thread' referring to the plant's stemen, 'chrysos' means 'gold', and 'anthos' is 'flower'. It's commonly known as "Golden Penda" and, guess what, they have very yellow flowers when in season from summer to autumn.
The inate knowledge of Greek or Latin linguistic origin isn't available to all people though (myself included) and sometimes a more creative association needs to be excercised. Harpullia pendula "Tulipwood" - Harp, Pully, Pendulum... can you imagine pendulums of harps and tulips hanging from a tree getting pulled? They have pendula-like small orange fruits which help with association.
Please check out LOLPlant ID for more of the bizzar and entertaining ways I get to know plants better.
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