Amor planta'rum nos unit
["What brings us together is love of plants"]

Calamin'tha nepetoi'des
   ["cute mint like catnip"]
 -îdes= "looking like"; -ôdes =  "smelling like."

Dicen'tra specta'bilis (L.) Lem.
 Di- ="two" + centra= "spurs"
   [genus, pl. genera]
 spect-= "looking,"+ -abilis= "able"
  [species, singular & plural
[Genus name + species name = binomial
{bi (“two”) + nom- (“name”) + -(i)al (“like, characterized by” frequent suffix forming adjectives from Latin)}, which every plant must carry since the work of Linnaeus on classification (taxonomy).
For meanings of components in names, consult Stearn's Dictionary or Chuck Griffith's web-site: http://www.winternet.com/~chuckg/dictionary.html ]
(L.) Lem.
[Abbreviated name of "author," i.e., scholar who gave this plant its botanically accepted name. Here parentheses around (L.) mean that   L(innaeus, Carolus, 1707-1778) first named this plant but that Lem(aire, A. C.: 1801-1871) convinced the botanical community to accept a new name for it thereby relegating the earlier name to the status of an unemployed relic, a category of nomenclature that botanists call  synonym, by which they mean a variant name no longer approved for use, quite opposite to the everyday English meaning of synonym).
 The above information found at
HortiPlex Plant Data Base  [http://hortiplex.gardenweb.com/plants/p1/gw1013426.html
  13 entries for Dicentra.
 Abbreviated "author" names can be expanded & identified by using  the following:
IPNI (International Plant Names Index),
 http://www.us.ipni.org/
  which allows multiple searches:
 (1) Plant Names,
 (2) Authors,
 (3) Author Abbreviations, which yield
 (1) for Dicentra" 51 entries;
 (3) for L., Lem. full names & dates.

Dicen'tra exi'mia   [ex- "from" + im- "pick" = "select, choice"]

Dicen'tra cuculla'ria (L.) Bernh.,
 cf. cucullus non facit monachum
["the hood doesn't make the monk"]

*Bicucul'la cuculla'ria
 Synonyms: *Bicuculla cucullaria; *Dicentra cucullaria var. occidentalis; *Dicentra occidentalis
 [*a synonym, i.e. older name ruled out by Bernhardi;
 synonyms from Hortiplex (above) ;
 Bernh(ardi, Johann Jacob: 1774-1850) from IPNI (above) ;
 for B's publications, see NYBG library (below) ]


Dicen'tra formosa'na variety "Aurora" [misremembered by informant]

Dicen'tra formo'sa, var. "Aurora"
 ["Dawn," cf. in Italian, alba = "dawn" << alba “white” in Latin;
 cf. (Greek) D. chrys'antha (“gold” + “flower”) & D. ochro'leuca (“yellow, orange” + “pale, white”); but (Latin) D. pauci'flora (“few” + “flowered”) & D. uni'flora (“one” + “flowered”]


NYBG (NY Botanical Garden)   [http://librisc.nybg.org/screens/mainmenu.html ]
 [Library Searches yield, e.g., works by Bernhardi, articles on  Dicentra]
NYBG Specimens [http://scisun.nybg.org:8890/searchdb/owa/wwwspecimen.searchform ]
 for original publication & type specimen: e.g.,
Dicen'tra thalictrifo'lia
  Hooker f. & Thomson, Publ. Flora Indica 1:273. 1855 [thalictr- = "meadow rue" & foli- = "leafed": Griffith, not Stearn]

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 E-Mail: jvsickle@brooklyn.cuny.edu