Vernacular Nomenclature

Country folk in all lands and form the earliest times have had appropriate names for the orchids that grew in their fields and forests . Most of these names , naturally ,emphasized some peculiarity of structure in the flower or veretative parts of the plant . Ames liked to quote Jakob Breyne . In 1678 , Breyne wrote in his " Exoticarum Aliarumque Minus Cognitarum Plantarum " at a time when orchids were at the peak of their importance as presumed therapeutic agents : " If nature ever showed her playfulness in the formation of plants , this is visible in the most striking way among the orchids .The manifold shape of these flowers arouses our highest admiration .They take on the form of little birds , or lizards ,of insects. They look like a man , like a women ,sometimes like an austere, sinister fighter ,sometimes like a clown who excites our laughter. They represent the image of a lazy tortoise, a melancholy toad, an agile , ever-chattering monkey .Nature has formed orchid flowers in such a way that , unless they make us laugh , they surely excite our greatest admiration .The causes of their marvellous variety are at least in my opinion hidden by nature under a secret veil."

A few examples of common names which refer to curious morphological structures will be sufficient to illustrate their origin . In North America ,Habenaria blephariglottis is known as Monkey Face,a playful name alluding to the supposed resemblance of the complex flower to an anthropoid face . Pogonia ophioglossoides answers to Snake Mouth or Adder's Mouth because of the popular fancy that the lip lookd like the open mouth of a snake . Many species of Spiranthes ,with their long slender graceful densely flowered spikes ,have the understandable epithet of Ladies ' Tresses . Aplectrum hyemale ,whose rootstock comprises several glutinous corms ,is aptly described by its popular name Puttyroot. Cyrtopodium punctatum , with its elongated and pointed pseudobulbs , is called Cigar Orchid and Cow Horn Orchid . It has also another name, Bee Swarm Orchid , which refers to its profusion of yellowish bee-like flowers . The sundry species of Cypripedium are , for obvious reasons, most commonly called Lady's Slipper of Moccasin Flower .Such a striking anatomical feature is the saccate lip that a host of similar names have been applied to the group : Camel's Foot ,Noah's Ark , Squirrel Shoe, Whippoorwill's shoe, Steeple Cap, Venus' Shoe ,and Indian Shoe .In many of the European languages ,the common name for species of Cypripedium emphasizes the shoe-shaped labellum : Sabot de la Vierge ,Soulier de Notre-Dame; Frauenschuh ,Marienschuh ,Pantoffela ,Scarpa della Madonna.

Even in the tropics ,where one might think that the bewildering number and variety of orchids would discourage popular naming ,one finds such terms as Bee for Oncidium and Dove for Peisteria , in Trinidad , and Torito ( little bull ) for the waxen flower of Stanhopea tigrinia with its bicornate mesochile ,in Mexico .

Many popular orchid names ,especially in Europ ,stem from supposed therapeutic properties of the plants ." Indeed ,it is to their fancied medicinal properties that we are indebted for the first attempts to distinguish one species from another and to clarify their difference by means of drawings ." This aspect of orchid nomenclature goes back far beyond the Greek secintist , Dioscorides ; it was he who , in the first century A.D . , coded the knowledge and lore and,thus , left it for posterity .The very name " orchid" comes from the Greek word for testicle , and arose from the widespread belief that the testiculate tubers of some of the terrestrial species ,through their resemblance to human or animal testicles ,possessed valuable aphrodisiac properties . This reasoning became ,as time went on ,of extreme importance in folk botany and was formulated into what is now known as the " Doctrine of Signatures" - the Creator had put a stamp on every plant indicating its use to man , and it was man's task to find and interpret this sign or signature . This belief persisted throughout the Middle Ages in Europe , and it still operates among many nonliterature and in medieval English herbals ,we see sundry species of Habenaria referred to as Dog Stones ,Goat Stones ,and Fool's Stones ,with the term " stone" signifying testicle .

That the connotation of these names for the presumed aphrodisiac orchids was considered rather offensive may be gleaned from Shakespeare's clever substitution for a species of Orchis of a more poetic or acceptable name in describing the death of Ophelia in " Hamlet" (Act 4, Sc , 7 ):

" There is a willow grows aslant a brook ,

That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream ;

There , with fantastic garland did she come ,

Of crow-flowers ,nettles ,daisies and long purples ,

That liberal shepherds give a grosser name ,

But our cold maids do dead man's fingers call them."

The name Nerve Root for Cypripdedium Calceolus indicates a former place in materia medica ; and the epithet Ettercap or Attacop for Pogonia ophioglossides suggests that the plant was once considered to be poisonous , for the term is derived from the Anglo-Saxon for " poison -head."

The unusual or interesting habitats often chosen by orchids sometimes give rise to very appropriate common names. Examples of this kind of epithet are numerous . We might cite our American Bog Orchid(Habenaria dilatata), Fen Orchid (Liparis Loeselii),Bog Adder's Mouth or Bog Tenderwort (Malaxis paludosa ) .

Another source of vernacular names is some peculiarity in a plant's behavior . We have many examples ,but perhaps two of the best known are Night -Smelling Epidendrum (Epidendrum nocturnum ) and Flor de Mayo (Laelia speciosa) . Similarly ,there are names which call attention to something extraordinary or highly unusual,such as Gypsy Spike (Habenaria flava var, herbiola ), Faery Fringe (Habenaria psychodes), and Phantom Orchid or Snow Orchid (Cephalanthera Austinae ).