Six Popular Plants Named for Famous People and Botanists
"Leonard Fuchs, a German botanist, discovered the plant known as fuchsia, while William Forsyth, a Scotch botanist, is responsible for the name forsythia."
August 1, 1950
On this day, The Ithaca Journal, out of Ithaca, New York, published a question from a reader.
The reader wanted an answer to this question:
Please list a few plants that are named for people.
The answer:
The poinsettia was named for Joel R. Poinsett, a famous statesman.
Wisteria is named in honor of Caspar Wistar, a distinguished physician and scientist of Philadelphia.
Leonard Fuchs, a German botanist, discovered the plant known as fuchsia, while William Forsyth, a Scotch botanist, is responsible for the name forsythia.
The name of Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a French soldier and explorer, is perpetuated in the bougainvillea.
The paulownia is named for the Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna, daughter of Czar Paul I.