I wasn't sure where to put this, so I hope it's ok here.
After doing a bit of reading about my favourite variety of Aucuba, I am curious... what does "Crotonifolia" mean? The "folia" part refers to its foliage, that part is easy... but I can't figure out the "Crotoni" part.. does this refer to the plant genus Croton? In what way? All of my google searching has yielded me nothing, but I'm pretty confident someone here can help.
Thanks! =)
Aucuba Japonica "Crotonifolia"
Crotonifolia would mean foliage that looks like Croton. Not having ever seen the plant I couldn't say if that's really an accurate description or not, but clearly whoever named the plant felt there was a similarity.
It's just a registered variety name, likening its leaves to those of Crotons (Codiaeum genus, not Croton genus).
The picture from our Plant Files here http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/170876/ sure does have leaves that look like a Croton.
Jmho, seems like the guy naming those didn't have much imagination, we have 'Serratafolia' and 'Longifolia' too. LoL
This message was edited Jul 21, 2012 11:38 AM
Tropicbreeze, oh dear, my Freudian slip was showing there, wasn't it? ;) Thank you for the correction. :)
Ecrane and Dyzzy, thank you, and LOL, yes, very imaginative indeed, eh? I had a feeling it had something to do with the Croton, but wasn't sure exactly what the connection was. "Looks like" makes perfect sense. Thank y'all again. =)
Speediebean, not to worry. We have native Crotons here, as in genus Croton. We also have Crotons (genus Codiaeum) but I can't understand why they would use the scientific name for one of them as the common name for the other. The plants are quite different. So whenever I see the word Croton, the mix up always comes to mind.
With all the (tens of? hundreds of?) thousands of plants that exist, I can't imagine how difficult it must be to find a name for one. Worse than Mom and Dad just bringing forth daughter number 12 and being unsure as to what to name her!! < ;P "Longifolia" is one good example.. just waiting for "Verdifolia". Ooooh look, it's got green leaves!! < =D LOL