Surprise, surprise: sexual names for plants and animals!

A walk in the fresh air through the Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna is always healthy, is beautiful in any season... and is, sometimes, surprising – for instance, when you come across a plant by the name of Coronilla vaginalis, colloquially known as the small scorpion vetch. It’s not that it looks erotic; rather, it’s the name that is puzzling! https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coronilla_vaginalis_001.JPG, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheiden-Kronwicke(page in German).

The species name ‘vaginalis’ (from Latin vagina = ‘sheath’, ‘scabbard’, ‘covering’) is really quite common in botany – however, it refers not to the human vagina but to the shape or structure of the plants’ components (e.g., leaf sheaths or involucres). The adjective vaginalis literally means: ‘furnished with a sheath’ or ‘sheath-like’. Such names usually describe plants whose leaves or leaf sheaths are tubular around the stem – that is to say, the stem is ‘ensheathed’ or ‘vaginated’.

The epithet vaginalis can also be found, for example, in Alysicarpus vaginalis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alysicarpus_vaginalis, a plant species from the legume family that is important as fodder for livestock, as well as in the Western Australian sedge Machaerina (Baumea) vaginalis https://gcln.org.au/product/baumea-vaginalis, or the bivalve species Sunetta vaginalis from the family Veneridae (Venus clams) https://molluscsoftasmania.org.au/project/sunetta-vaginalis.

Clitoria ternatea (blue pea), a climbing ornamental plant from the Papilionaceae family, is highly decorative. It is edible but is also used as a colouring substance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clitoria_ternatea.

Love-in-a-mist (Latin Nigella damascena), a widespread garden plant from the Mediterranean region, also bears blue flowers, and is known in parts of Europe as ‘lady in the green’. Its names are due to the flowers being nestled in delicate, ‘misty’ bracts, also resembling young ladies with green veils. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigella_damascena.

However, it is not only supposedly female designations that are used in the plant and animal world; male ones also exist, such as Phallus impudicus, known in English as the common stinkhorn, which was named Mushroom of the Year in 2020. The reason for its name is obvious: it consists of a 20-cm long, 2-to-3-cm-wide, white stalk with a cap https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phallus_impudicus.

Plant lovers will also know the meaning of the word orchid: the ancient Greek word orchis means testicle, and the plant’s name is derived from the shape of the pair of root-tubers of some representatives of the genus Orchis, which resemble human testicles.

Finally, there are epithets like genitalis that are based on distinctive visual features, such as in beetles or in the ant Monomorium genitalis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomorium.

However, none of these names reveals anything about the effects of the corresponding plants (and animals). For that, a visit to the Museum of Contraception and Abortion is called for – for example, taking a look here: https://www.muvs.org/en/contraception/c-media/needlepoint-hanging-about-plants-id2751/

During the Christmas period each day from 25th to 28th December between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. We look forward to you coming by!