Don’t let a baffling botanical name change put you off these delightful ex-asters, says Graham Rice
Height x Spread 1.7m x 60cm
Squinting at dried plant specimens that
may have lain, uninspected, in brown paper folders for decades, the taxonomic botanist (otherwise known as the messer-about with plant names) has a lot to answer for. But there is a point.
It may be baffling to gardeners but updating plant names is vital. Salvias are all called ‘salvia’ because they have features in common. When botanists looked at rosemary, it turned out that salvias and rosemary were closer relatives than we thought. So what we used to call Rosmarinus officinalis is now called Salvia rosmarinus.
And let’s be clear: examining dried specimens is only part of it. The latest genetic analysis also plays a crucial role in these determinations.
Which brings us to the genus Aster, where botanists came to a conclusion the opposite of what happened with sal
