Forum Topic

  1. Cotoneaster dammeri

  2. Can you please chance common name to bearberry? I know there are often several common names for plants, but this name is in common use (at least outside NZ) and would help to distinguish this Cotoneaster from others.

  3. I will do this but please enlighten me - how exactly does 'bearberry' help distinguish this Cotoneaster from any other in a land without bears? As you will be aware I regard the mass listing of vernaculars as a fairly pointless exercise - people are better to learn the actual scientific names, especially for complex weed genera like Cotoneaster.........

  4. Thanks Peter. Yes vernacular names are less reliable & specific than scientific names. The website does have a category for vernacular names though, so I thought you'd appreciate my suggestions. I was not aware that you regard the mass listing of vernacular names as pointless. I only submitted one vernacular name for each of 3 Cotoneaster species which, at the time, only listed "Cotoneaster" as a vernacular name. I thought that if they were going to have a vernacular name then it would be better to have one that might be unique to that species of Cotoneaster. It can be useful to list vernacular names on a great website like this e.g. when trying to find the scientific name for a plant when all the info you have is a vernacular name & an image (this happens to me often when doing weed surveys). I don't think we will ever get the general public to use scientific names properly. It's hard enough getting horticulturists to! PS I don't think it's relevant that we don't have wild bears in NZ

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