Q. I notice you sometimes include scientific names of animals in your columns. One time you identified a timber rattlesnake; another time, two turtles (an Alabama redbelly turtle and a stinkpot).

Last month, I wrote about the common names of birds, and the planned changes to some of those names. In the past, I’ve written about the folk names of birds. But there are also the scientific names of ...

A black-capped chickadee by any other name is a Poecile atricapillus. That’s the bird’s scientific name, the reference used worldwide to avoid the confusion a list of local names could offer. For ...

Often when we receive questions about a plant, all we're told is the plant’s common name. For most of our ornamental plants, that isn’t a problem, but when it comes to edible plants, figuring out the ...

Passiflora incarnata, Nymphaea odorata, Chamaecrista fasciculata, Asclepius incarnata! Sounds like spells from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, doesn’t it? While these words could come ...

Since the mid-1700s, researchers have classified life with scientific names. But some of them have problematic histories and connotations. The botanical community is trying to tackle this issue. Since ...

When did humans begin to assign names to each other? It’s a question that has occupied researchers for decades. What is clear, however, is how important consistent naming is in helping us to make ...

For almost 300 years, researchers have classified life on Earth with scientific names — two-word monikers like Homo sapiens that become a kind of permanent label. But there are those who argue that ...

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." On any given frantic morning, as you’re wrangling the kids to get out of the house, you may sputter ...

Q. I notice you sometimes include scientific names of animals in your columns. One time you identified a timber rattlesnake; another time, two turtles (an Alabama redbelly turtle and a stinkpot).