Most of us are not fluent in Latin so distinguishing between an Aesculus parviflora and an Aesculus pavia may take some extra effort. Throw hybrids and cultivars into the mix and our plant choices may increase with our confusion.

Categorizing plants is both scientifically and commercially important. Swedish naturalist Carl Von Linne (who latinized his own name and is more commonly recognized as Carl Linnaeus) began developing a system of botanical nomenclature nearly 300 years ago in order to keep the many plant species straight. This was indeed necessary because there are over 25,000 species of flowering plants known today.

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