Are plant names proper nouns?
yos...@hotmail.com
Do I need to capitalize the names of plants like Sego Lily, or Death Camas in
the middle of sentences? I had first referred to a writer's handbook,
however it doesn't provide me an answer. Are there any good online resources?
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Donna Richoux
<yos...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Do I need to capitalize the names of plants like Sego Lily, or Death Camas
> in the middle of sentences?
This question comes up about twice a year. I believe the opinion can be
summarized as: usually not, except for certain publishers or in certain
lines of work, in which case you will be told or you've seen it already.
An exception is if the common name contains a proper noun, like Canada
goose. Otherwise, just remember that you don't capitalize dog and cat,
so you don't capitalize those other common names.
>I had first referred to a writer's handbook, however it doesn't provide
>me an answer. Are there any good online resources?
There are some style guides on line, whether they answer this question
or not I don't know. You can get to those sites by starting with
Zuzu's Petals Literary Links: Resources for Poets and Writers
<http://www.lehigh.net/zuzu/poelink.htm>
Best wishes --- Donna Richoux
Aaron J. Dinkin
In article <353816f4...@nntp.ix.netcom.com>, s.m...@ix.netcom.com wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Apr 1998 14:36:12 -0600, yos...@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> >Do I need to capitalize the names of plants like Sego Lily, or Death Camas
> >in the middle of sentences? I had first referred to a writer's handbook,
> >however it doesn't provide me an answer. Are there any good online
> >resources?
>
> If those are the plants' proper names, then you need to capitalize
> them whether at the beginning, middle, or end of sentences.
But plants don't typically have proper names. You might say, for instance,
"The poison sumac in my backyard was named Death Camas" - but it wouldn't
be likely.
-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom
Ross Howard
On Wed, 15 Apr 1998 20:22:46 GMT, s.m...@ix.netcom.com (Polar) wrote:
>On Wed, 15 Apr 1998 14:36:12 -0600, yos...@hotmail.com wrote:
>
>>Do I need to capitalize the names of plants like Sego Lily, or Death Camas in
>>the middle of sentences? I had first referred to a writer's handbook,
>>however it doesn't provide me an answer. Are there any good online resources?
>
>If those are the plants' proper names, then you need to capitalize
>them whether at the beginning, middle, or end of sentences.
What do you mean by "proper name"? Are you pointing out the difference
between "Poor old Sego Lily is thirsty; let's give her a drop of
water" and "That sego lily needs watering"? If so, isn't that rather
obvious (it's the same difference as "Clinton looked for Socks under
the bed" and "Clinton looked for some socks in the drawer")?
The answer to the question is no, unless a compound common name
includes a word that is normally capitalised, in which case that word
and only that word is capitalised in the compound common name (for
example, "common violet" but "African violet"; "water lily" but
"Victoria lily").
There is, however, a new trend in botanical texts to highlight
indigenous (i.e. non-English) common plant names in bold -- bold
because italics have already been reserved for scientific names.
Ross Howard
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Donna Richoux
Polar <s.m...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Apr 1998 14:36:12 -0600, yos...@hotmail.com wrote:
>
> >Do I need to capitalize the names of plants like Sego Lily, or Death
> >Camas in the middle of sentences? I had first referred to a writer's
> >handbook, however it doesn't provide me an answer. Are there any good
> >online resources?
>
> If those are the plants' proper names, then you need to capitalize them
> whether at the beginning, middle, or end of sentences.
Although your answer sounds beautifully elegant, I'm afraid it clouds
the issue. Plants don't have proper names. "I'd like you to meet Muffy,
my pet cactus." Oh, there might be the odd specimen here and there with
a name, like the General Sherman Tree in California, or Yggdrasil, the
Tree of the World in Norse mythology.
Plants have common names, like curly lettuce and sugar maple and yew,
and they have scientific names, like /Sedum spurium/. There are specific
rules about how the scientific name should be written, which I will not
go into. Occasionally, part of the scientific name serves as a common
name, such as "rhododendron." The names that <yos...@hotmail.com> was
asking about were common names.
As I said elsewhere, some common names happen to contain proper nouns,
like African violet and Douglas fir. The example given of "sego lily"
throws me a bit, but I suspect "sego" is not a place but an adjective.
Does anyone know? I have never heard of the plant, and it's not in my
reference books.
As I also said, there are certain kinds of writing, usually about plants
and nature, where other rules are followed. Several of my plant guides,
for example, put everything into caps -- AFRICAN VIOLET. Some give
initial caps to every word -- Painted Lily. But if <yos...@hotmail.com>
was working in that sort of environment, he or she would know.
SLHinton17
yos...@hotmail.com writes:
>Do I need to capitalize the names of plants like Sego Lily, or Death Camas in
>the middle of sentences? I had first referred to a writer's handbook,
>however it doesn't provide me an answer. Are there any good online resources?
***********************************
I don't believe there is any hard and fast rule about this. My practice is to
capitalize when referring to a species, but not when referring to a genus or
other category that might include a number of species. Thus I would write
"Sego Lilly," but would characterize this plant as being a kind of "lily."
(Actually, I have not written much about plants, but in my book _Seashore Life
of Southern California_, the University of California Press accepted this
system -- although higher groups WERE capitalized when the appeared as a
sub-chapter heading, as in "Abalones." )
Sam Hinton
La Jolla, CA
Lee Rudolph
tr...@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux) writes:
>Although your answer sounds beautifully elegant, I'm afraid it clouds
>the issue. Plants don't have proper names. "I'd like you to meet Muffy,
>my pet cactus." Oh, there might be the odd specimen here and there with
>a name, like the General Sherman Tree in California, or Yggdrasil, the
>Tree of the World in Norse mythology.
And "The Tree That Owns Itself" in Athens, Georgia, C^HUSA.
But that may be its title, rather than its proper name.
Lee Rudolph
N.Mitchum
Donna Richoux wrote:
-----
> As I said elsewhere, some common names happen to contain proper nouns,
> like African violet and Douglas fir. The example given of "sego lily"
> throws me a bit, but I suspect "sego" is not a place but an adjective.
> Does anyone know? I have never heard of the plant, and it's not in my
> reference books.
According to my dictionaries it's not capitalized, neither in
"sego" nor "sego lily." The plant is found in western North
America, and the word comes from an Indian language.
--- NM
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