Botanical Accuracy

Welcome to the "Better Botanical Business Bureau", where botanical mistakes in commercial and public venues and products are showcased and corrected. It is not unusual with products, ingredients, and images used in media, design, and commercial works to be presented with the wrong common names, wrong species names, and/or wrong ingredients. This blog provides scientific and educational information to correct such mistakes as part of a global effort to increase botanical knowledge.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Reindeer moss is a lichen, not a moss

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There are several species of lichens that often are sold as 'mosses', and reindeer lichen is one of the most common.  It is frequen...
Saturday, September 21, 2013

The oily shea-butter tree, should it be Butyrospermum parkii or Vitellaria paradoxa?

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The shea-butter tree is a very popular source of a vegetable fat in Africa (more information at Agrifostree ). This fat, called shea butter,...
Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Is oxeye daisy a Leucanthemum or a Chrysanthemum?

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The common garden plant, wildflower and sometimes 'weed' oxeye daisy is often listed under several different Latin names.  How can ...
Sunday, June 9, 2013

Wikiherbia: Anise is not the same as star anise

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The website wikiherbia promotes itself as the 'complete herb database' and provides information on medicinal plants.  It is in no wa...
Monday, June 3, 2013

Common mistake: Centaurea vs. Centaurium, both centaury

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The two plant genera Centaurea and Centaurium are commonly mixed up, even if they are very different and belong to different families.  Spec...
Thursday, May 23, 2013

Lessonia: 'Marine lichen' is not a lichen, it is a red algae

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Lessonia is a company that provides ingredients to cosmetics companies.  They specialize in exfoliators and botanical extracts , including ...
Saturday, May 18, 2013

Greening Singapore with temperate weeds?

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2013 logo for Singapore's National Park Service © Singapore National Parks , fair use. I recently recieved an e-mail from Singapore ...
Monday, May 13, 2013

The difference between stems, stalks, and petioles in rhubarb

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This is the wonderful rhubarb season!  And for those of us that like the tart flavor, the red shiny stalks (or sometimes green) makes us ima...
Sunday, May 12, 2013

The New York Times: Restaurant NOMA in Copenhagen

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In July 6, 2010, The New York Times published an article by Frank Bruni about the amazing and world-renowned restaurant NOMA in Copenhagen ...

"Rosa arctica" - the Kiehl's plant that doesn't exist

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Rosa Arctica cream. © Kiehl's , fair use Instead of using the wrong name for a plant, you can invent a new scientific plant name to ...
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