A Special Plant Given the Names of Two HonorableMen: Rhododendron benhallii

摘要

In the late 1700s, a Scottish surgeonnamed Archibald Menzies madeseveral trips on sailing ships to NorthAmerica, Hawaii and China. On boardthe ships, he was in charge of keepingthe sailors healthy, but he also foundtime to collect plants. His discoveriesinclude Pseudotsuga menziesii(Douglas-fir), Arbutus menziesii(Pacific madrone), Araucaria araucana(monkey puzzle tree) and Menziesia (agenus of ericaceous shrubs). For overtwo hundred years, these botanicalnames have been honoring Menzies’discoveries. In the last ten years,however, the entire genus of Menziesia,the ericaceous shrubs, has been movedinto the genus Rhododendron. Today’sresearch has verified this relationship torhododendrons. One of the shrubs inthe genus was Menziesia ciliicalyx, butsince there is already a rhododendronnamed R. ciliicalyx, a new name neededto be found.