What's in a name? Following the column about Quisqualis indica two weeks ago, Alain Missorten asked: “Any idea why it is called the Rangoon creeper?”
He added that he was a big fan of fragrant flowers and plants, and would like to put some in big pots. “Any recommendations as to where I can buy this breed?” he asked.
I saw some Rangoon creepers at the Chatuchak midweek plant market two weeks ago. However, plants there change all the time, and many of what you see this Wednesday may not be there the following week. That’s the reason why I don’t tire of going there; there are new plants to see every week. Once I chanced upon a potted jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) with long strands of beautiful aquamarine flowers. Indigenous to the Philippines, it is not commonly grown in Thailand so I was surprised that it was selling for only 150 baht. That was five years ago, and since then I’ve never seen it again being sold anywhere.
There are two possibilities why Quisqualis indica is commonly known as Rangoon creeper. Its species name, indica, indicates that it is a native of India, but its natural area of distribution includes peninsular Malaysia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. Therefore, it is not surprising if it is indigenous to Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), which is much closer to India than the three countries mentioned above, and it is possible that whoever named it “Rangoon creeper” first saw it in what was then the Burmese capital.
Name dropping: Far left, ‘Hibiscus syriacus’ is named after Syria, the country where it was found. Left, at Chatuchak, there are new plants to see every week, including this jade vine.
That is only my theory, of course, for I could not find any documents explaining why the creeper is known as such. However, just as a rose is a rose and smells as sweet by any other name, the Rangoon creeper is fragrant and beautiful whether it is known as lep mue nang (Thai), niog-niogan (Filipino), akar dani (Malay) or whatever it is called in the many other countries where it has been naturalised.
If each and every country or region had its own name for plants, confusion would reign supreme. For this reason, Carl Linnaeus, the 18th century Swedish botanist, contended that a universal system should be adopted for naming plants, and Latin was the language chosen for this purpose. Every plant known to science is therefore given an official scientific name which is used only for that particular plant.
The name of a plant family is usually formed by adding the Latin ending “aceae” to the name of one of its genera (plural for genus). Thus we have Bromeliaceae for bromeliads and other plants belonging to the pineapple family; Cactaceae for succulents in the cacti family; Cycadaceae for cycas (members of the sago-palm family); Moraceae (mulberry-fig family); Musaceae (banana family); Rosaceae (rose family) ... the list is long.
Each family or sub-family consists of genera, which in turn are divided into species. The scientific name of a plant consists of two words: first, the genus or the group to which the plant belongs; second, the species, usually a descriptive (although not always) adjective, to indicate the particular plant in the group.
The species name usually denotes one of the following:
Lead-in: At Chatuchak, there are new plants to see every week, including this jade vine.
a) The natural characteristic of the plant. For example: Billbergia pyramidalis, indicating that this type of plant in the Bromeliaceae family has a pyramid shape; Tithonia diversifolia, meaning that the leaves of this Mexican sunflower have diverse forms; Aloe variegata, an aloe with variegated leaves.
b) The origin of the plant. For example: Camellia japonica, indicating that this species of camellia originated from the mountains of Japan; Hibiscus syriacus, after the country where it was found, Syria.
c) Named after a person. For example, Wollemia nobilis, after David Noble, the person who discovered it; Billbergia fosteriana, after Mulford Foster, who introduced it into cultivation.
When a new hybrid, or cultivar, of the species is developed, its name is placed behind the species and enclosed with a single quotation. For example: Camellia japonica ‘Pink Perfection’. The name of the person who named the plant is also sometimes written after the name of the species. For example: Ananas comosus Linn, indicating that it was named by Carl Linnaeus. The name of the species, however, is always the first two words.
This system is comparable to the way we distinguish one person from another: Everyone has a family name (genus) and a given name (species). Take Quisqualis indica, for example. “Quisqualis” refers to a genus belonging to the family Combretaceae and “indica” is the name given to this particular plant so that it cannot be mistaken for any of the others in the same genus.
But I have digressed. Mr Missorten said that he wanted to plant a Rangoon creeper in containers. Unfortunately, it cannot be contained in a pot if you want to enjoy it at its best. It has to be planted in the ground so that its roots can spread far and wide, and needs a strong trellis to support its sprawling vines. n
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Unrestrained: Below, Rangoon creeper cannot be contained in a pot.
