Many people use common names to discuss and describe their plants. However, there is too much confusion when using a common name since the many plants may be called by the same name.
Ice-Plant
ICE-PLANT - Common name for Cryophytum crystalinum, a succulent annual formerly known (and still often listed in catalogs) as Mesembryanthemum. In South Africa, Mediterranean regions, and Southern and Lower California it grows luxuriantly in barren, rocky places and dry sand, storing up moisture in its thick stems and foliage.
It is therefore an ideal rock-garden plant, its prostrate growth about 6 in. high being especially adapted to dry banks and sunny spots. The foliage sparkles like ice crystals, giving rise to the common name, and as they trail over the ground the plants are decidedly ornamental. The inconspicuous flowers are pinkish white with slender petals. Easily propagated by seed, the iccplant should be started indoors in the North, the seedlings being set out only after the weather becomes warm.
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Harbinger-of-SpringHARBINGER-OF-SPRING - Common name of Erigenia bulbosa, a tuberous-rooted, almost stemless, white-flowered herbaceous perennial, native in open deciduous woods from the Mississippi River eastward, blooming among the first of the spring flowers.
Hacksaw FernHACKSAW FERN (Doodia lunulata) - A small fern for the cool greenhouse,
compact, liking shade, and excellent for edging. Fronds reddish when young.
GARDEN-BALSAM. The accepted common name for Impatiens balsamina, a popular colorful annual, but sometimes given to a species of tropical water-willows, Dianthera pecloralis.
GarbanzoGARBANZO (gahr-bahn’-so). A common name for Cicer arietinum or Chickpea.
Gamboge-TreeGAMBOGE-TREE (gam-bohj’). Common name for Garcinia morella, a broad-leaved, slow growing tree from Asia grown in West Indies and sometimes in S. Fla., bearing fruit the size of cherries. Its juice yields the coloring matter (gamboge) of commerce.
Fan PalmsFAN-PALMS - Common name given to a number of palms having broad, fan-shaped leaves, sometimes cut all the way to the center into many segments. Well known examples are the Palmetto, the European Fan-Palm, the Washingtonia, and the Talipot, which latter produces the largest fans known.
Fame FlowerFAME-FLOWER - Common name for the genus Talinum of the Purslane Family, comprising a number of small fleshy perennial herbs with erect clusters of pink, red, or yellow flowers that last but a short time. Some of the species are hardy and grown in the rock garden or the border; others are grown in pots [...]
False OliveFALSE-OLIVE - Common name for Elaeodendron orientale, a semi-tropical plant with small leathery leaves, remarkable for the way they change from a narrow slender form with a red midrib in the juvenile stage to the broad blunt leaves of the mature plant. It has small yellowish-green flowers followed by fruit the size and shape of [...]
Fairy LilyFAIRY-LILY - A common name for Zephyranthes, a genus of small Amaryllis-like bulbous herbs with variously colored funnel-shaped flowers.
