Showing posts with label Classification. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classification. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

What's in a name?

Huperzia squarrosa
What's the botanical name of this tassel fern?

While preparing a blog post about the United States Botanic Garden, I had a bit of a quandary with an interesting plant I photographed there.  The plant is sometime known as "tassel fern", but I had forgotten to note its botanical name so I posted it on my Facebook page and shared it with a few fern groups to get the proper identification.  What I got back were 3 different names: Lycopodium squarrosum, Huperzia squarrosa, and Phlegmariurus squarrosus.  Which one is right?