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WHY PLANT NAMES ARE IMPORTANT ©2001 by Cherrie Corey, Resident botanist for Vibration MagazineIn making or studying essences, the official (scientific) name of a plant tells you exactly what essence you are dealing with. Because flower essence companies span the globe now, these official names become important due to all the languages involved. Even among the various English-speaking countries around the world, the same plant may be given several different names--heartsease, for instance, is also Johnny jump-up, viola, wild pansy, or tickle-my-fancy, depending on where you live. To make identification still more difficult, two entirely different plants may be given the same name in different locations. The impatiens in the Bach kit is a different plant altogether than the impatiens used as a house plant in the United States. It is for reasons like these that a system to classify and name plant species was needed. The scientific nomenclature now widely used to identify and classify plants was developed by Carl Linnaeus in the mid-1700's. While this is a relatively "new" system for classifying and communicating about plants, it provides a common foundation for sharing identification and information across disciplines, cultures, and broad geographic areas. Scientific names provide a genealogical framework designating family, genus, and species that allows a quick reference for relationships of form, habit, and healing attributes, among other things.  
One of the more interesting features of the system, for serious essence students, is the classification of plants into families. Essences made from plants in the same family may share common issues and healing properties. For instance, the Mimulus in the Bach kit is actually a close cousin of the Scarlet, Sticky, and Purple Monkeyflowers in the Flower Essence Society kit--Mimulus being the scientific name for all. The common thread in these remedies is fear, though the specific fear being addressed is related to the color of the flower. Patricia Kaminski and Richard Katz, of the Flower Essence Society, illustrate how these relationships serve the healing practitioner's observations in their discussion of botanical families in The Twelve Windows of Plant Perception, which you can see on their web site. Editor's Note: For more about how various plants in the same family relate to one another, see Joyce Mason's articles on Color and Essence Properties and on The Three Yarrows in an earlier issue of Vibration. To show how this system works, the various buttercups are classified by the Latin name Ranunculus, with the second given name telling which of this varied species is intended. Thus one common buttercup is Ranunculus occidentalis, usually abbreviated R. occidentalis. While researching Buttercup essences among many well-known essence lines, I found references to some five different Ranunculus species including R. occidentalis, acris, bulbosus, arbortivus, and uncinatus. Some were identified by both common and Latin names, some by specific common names, and two simply as 'Buttercup' leaving me to wonder what plant was common to the maker's locale.  I've been enjoying and studying plants for much of my life and the use of scientific nomenclature has become second nature. But for those who have come to plant healing from another path, Latin names can pose something of an obstacle. For this reason I am including below a reference list of the 38 common Bach essences along with their specific common and Latin names, and plant family. The on-line version of the Columbia Encyclopedia also is a consistently helpful reference for locating common and scientific names of plants and descriptions of their distributions, and growth habits. Its search engine also ties into the American Heritage Dictionary which provides informative derivations of the Latin names. Below you will find botanical information on the 38 Bach remedies. The first line is the remedy name, while the second may hold alternative common names, if any, for the plant. Next you will see the scientific (botanical) name, which is Latin. In parentheses next to it, you will find the family the plant belongs to. Finally, most of them have links to a photo that will help you identify and connect with the plant.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Cherrie is an experienced field botanist, plant educator, herbalist, and counselor. She spent much of her early childhood learning about plants from her elders and went on to become an avid student of psychology, indigenous cultures, field botany and herbalism. She developed the Education Department of the New England Wild Flower Society/Garden in the Woods, now one of the largest and most respected programs for wild plant study and conservation education in the country. RavenLight, Cherrie's private practice in Concord, Massachusetts, provides an integrated framework using astrological profiles, life stories analysis, dreamwork, and flower essence therapy to help people to move consciously through key transitional times in their lives. Email her at ccorey@ma.ultranet.com. ART CREDITS: Courtesy of ArtToday.
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