The scientific names, they are a-changin'

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. DNA analysis lets people find their biological parents or let’s people know if they are carriers for a disease. But I am not always happy about DNA analysis of plants; I spent a lot of time learning the old names and it seems like every whip stitch I have to start over. The worst is the new name for resurrection fern. The old name was Polypodium polypodioides, have you every heard something lovelier to say and for such a fascinating plant, not a fern, but that one that looks dead, all dried up and brown, but after a rain springs back plump and green. Now it’s Pleopeltis michauxiana. And our beautiful native dogwood used to be Cornus florida (florida means flowering, not from Florida), now it’s Benthamidia florida.