Re: Plant Names

hmiller@io.com writes:
>We've got lots of live oaks around here in Texas, also. I guess from the
>range and description it's probably the Virginia live oak (Quercus
>virginiana), but I don't know much about trees. Tirelat for "oak" is
>"xaxt".
I haven't really studied the types of trees native to Texas, but my plant
encyclopedia probably has at least one oak from your state listed. I tried
not to keep the common names for many of the plants (unless original)
because a lot of plants can have the same names (Such as "Live Oak"). So,
i tried to find the explanations of the Latin names. I have heard it used
for the oaks here and in the South.
>
>
>The Texas bluebonnet is also a lupine (Lupinus texensis), with a deep blue
>color; the Tirelat name "gulelhom" is a sort of multilingual play on
>words,
>since "lupine" also means "wolf-like" in English and "gul" is the Tirelat
>word for "wolf".
Cool! I thought of that but then I thought the common name was specific
ONLY to L. nanus. Actually the Texas Blue Bonnet looks a lot like the Sky
lupine, and both blanket fields in blossoms (a gas station near here has
an empty field by it that becomes almost totally blue when the sky lupines
bloom). It is wonderful when you also have California poppies blooming at
the same time (blue and golden orange, a spectacular sight!)
>
>Tirelat also has words for two other local wildflowers: "fila" the evening
>primrose (Oenothera speciosa), and "nafi" the Indian blanket or firewheel
>(Gaillardia pulchella).
Interesting. Some of the roots in Tilon Nevo are for the general category
of a plant (like lily), or some are very specific (like Lilac).

One of my goals for Tilon Nevo was to come up with names for many of the
native plants. I have a lot more natives to name since there are many,
many, many, different plants out in the chapparal.  I have just barely
scratched the surface of the natives. I doubt I will go into other plants
except common garden plants! I might work on Palms next (a favorite plant
family of mine).