"Calla Lilies" -"Arum Lilies" - notes on word usage
Mary Sue Ittner (Sat, 17 Jun 2006 09:03:43 PDT)

Dear Jim,

Your note about using botanical names made me smile. I usually use both
when people in my hiking group ask me a question as most of them do not
want to learn the botanical names at all. It seems like a lost cause. I
also have trouble with the use of the word lily. Since so many California
genera were considered belonging in the Liliaceae family in Jepson all of
those were referred to by some as lilies (Calochortus to Clintonia to
Triteleia for instance). I never found that very useful in talking about
the plants. Some of those genera now are in different families thank
goodness. And if I give something a common name I've heard when someone
else knows it by another name they will correct me. I usually respond with
saying if it's a common name they can call it anything they want, but other
people may not know what they are talking about.

Here in Northern California where Zantedeschia aethiopica has naturalized
in wet places as it sounds like it has in Western Australia everyone calls
them Calla lilies and would have no idea what I was talking about if I used
the botanical name. I didn't realize people called them Arum lilies until
on our first trip to South Africa when we asked about flowers in the
Western Cape near Darling. We wanted to go see some of the reserves where
there are often wonderful displays of flowers. The woman we talked to at
the visitors center near there insisted we were too early and would find
much more to our interest in Cape Town and should move on. We continued to
explain we were interested in flowers not cities and we knew you could
drive on some of the farmer's properties to look. Finally she brightened
and told us when we drove out of town there was a nice patch of Arum lilies
near some cows and that should be enough to satisfy us. We could stop and
take a picture. We chuckled as we left intending to find those reserves on
our own since we don't have to leave California to see such a sight.

In an International list like ours I agree that it is safer for us to use
botanical names so everyone will know what it is we are talking about.

Mary Sue

Mary Sue Ittner
California's North Coast
Wet mild winters with occasional frost
Dry mild summers