Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger Christmas Carol)

One of our weekly coffee and cake trips out with Kanyl.  This time Dobbies garden centre.  We find garden centres are always good for a blip.  Well not terribly good at this time of the year.  The only flowers were various Hellebores and the Christmas decorations were still being worked on.

I grew up with my parents calling these Christmas Roses.  My attitude to scientific names changed when in my teens.  Back then I used to fish, myself and a mate were down at the river and had a chat with a couple of lads we knew who were out shooting "Cushats".  Soon after they left the "beck watcher" turned up to check our licences.  He then asked about the other lads, we told him they were out shooting Cushats.  We might as well have been talking outer mongolian he clearly wasn't Cumbrian.  So I translated it into Woodpigeons.

The incident made me realise that not everybody calls things by the same name and then as time went by I realised the scientific name helps give you information.  For example yesterdays blip Turdus philomelos  instantly tells you, assuming you know the scientific name for Blackbird they are a close relation.

Now knowing blips may be read by people speaking other languages I feel the scientific name helps, it certainly helps me if I come across a foreign blip that uses the scientific name.