Gardeners, I think it’s fair to say, have a fairly fraught relationship with plant taxonomy. Botanists want the way plants are classified and named to reflect our best understanding of their evolutionary relationships. Gardeners just wish they would leave well enough alone.
In recent years, the whole subject has been revolutionised, in part, by our ability to look directly at plant DNA, which has often revealed that some of our earlier ideas weren’t quite right, and that plants’ names need to change.
Aster
But change how? Sometimes we need new names, and a good example is Aster. When Carl Linnaeus was handing out our modern Latin binomial names, he picked the European aster as the ‘type’ species of his new Aster genus and called it Aster amellus.
Quite a few other European plants looked rather like the European aster, so these were added to the new genus. Later, botanists found an absolute cornucopia of asters in North America, including Aster novi-belgii, the New York aster, and Aster novae-angliae, the New England aster. These two are the plants that are most often called Michaelmas daisies, and these days it’s hard to imagine the autumn garden without them.
Aster just grew and grew, but suspicions developed that not all those plants belonged together, suspicions confirmed by the new DNA evidence in the mid-1990s.
Denne historien er fra July 2023-utgaven av Gardens Illustrated.
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Denne historien er fra July 2023-utgaven av Gardens Illustrated.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Field of Dreams - The naturalistic gem Hans Gieszen has created in former meadowlands near Utrecht in the Netherlands is the culmination of a lifelong passion
Ever since his mother gave him seeds as a small boy, gardening has been a passion for Hans Gieszen. He is completely self-taught, relying on garden visits and books for instruction, with one book in particular, Dream Plants for the Natural Garden by Henk Gerritsen and Piet Oudolf, influencing his style. “It was fascinating,” says Hans, remembering his first encounter with the book. “All those photos – pictures with mists and these tall and low plants and grasses. I realised I couldn’t do it in my small garden, but I kept dreaming and reading about it.”
WORLD OF POSSIBILITY
This superb tour of the world's botanical gardens highlights their vital role in saving the planet's flora, says Claire Masset
THE FEMININE TOUCH?
Does your garden have masculine or feminine style, and does it even matter? Head gardener Benjamin Pope unpicks gardening's gender stereotypes
'If you emulate nature, you're on to a winner'
Gardener, television presenter and author Carol Klein talks about her new book, the books she loves, her current challenges and what she's up to next
FRIENDLY ADVICE
When tasked with creating a garden for her friends, designer Neive Tierney found the project came with challenges - not least the need to include a wheelchair ramp and squeeze in a saltwater swimming pool
Passing the baton
The celebrated nursery and garden at Marchants Hardy Plants in East Sussex is now being managed by a new team, who continue to inspire visitors with innovative planting
My sweet gourd
Clark Lawrence, an American living in the heart of Italy's pumpkin province, loves growing different cultivars of pumpkins and ornamental gourds for their sweet flavours and fabulous looks
ANDY JASPER
The new CEO of the Eden Project on his excitement about a new chapter, the legacy he's left at the National Trust and his joy at heading home to Cornwall
Bedding in
In just under nine years, the owners of Arvensis Nursery in Wiltshire have created a mature garden that displays their high-quality perennials
Late summer dreams
From cool pastels and foliage to hot colours, designer Jo Thompson creates three stylish container combinations for autumn