Cavan Allen

As our hobby grows, I think that our knowledge of the plants we keep should keep pace. I can think of a couple reasons why we should all make the effort to learn our plant's scientific names. It's not hard! A couple reasons are:

- It helps us to know the requirements of what we're keeping.

- We learn interesting things about the plants we keep that we otherwise might not know.

- It spurs an investigative spirit that leads to more and more success in keeping aquarium plants.

- Sending something on to someone else? To avoid any mix ups, make sure you have what you think you do.

- It's just interesting. Yes, we're not all nerds about this kind of thing like I am, but it really is fun to find out the identity of that attractive new plant you found locally.

- A lot of sources, like a few LFS here that shall remain nameless, don't feel the need to accurately identify what they're selling. It's often up to you to find out what something really is and then decide if it's really what you want. The unfortunate practice of selling non-aquatic plants as ones that are suitable for submersed life is a good example of what I'm talking about here.

- If nobody tried to accurately identify anything, where would our hobby be? This one is a bit hard to articulate, but I think it's an important one to mention. Maybe someone else can help me out.

Please discuss what I've talked about here and bring up a few points of your own. Why do you think we need to learn scientific names and properly identify what we've got?