Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Q. I notice you sometimes include scientific names of animals in your columns. One time you identified a timber rattlesnake; ...

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 ...

When strolling through a garden center or flipping through a plant catalog, you’ll often notice two distinct names on each tag: a common name and a botanical name. While the common name feels friendly ...

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 ...

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 ...

The onion is probably the most useful vegetable in the world, but it also has a complicated biological identity. The Food and ...

Holly has a degree in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Leicester. Her scientific interests include genomics, personalized medicine, and bioethics.View full profile Holly has a degree in ...

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).