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New Hybrid Plant Cultivars with "Butterfly Names"

Posted: Sat Feb 29, 2020 3:20 am
by PhilBJohnson
The Adonis Blue is a species of chalk downland, where it may be found in warm, sheltered spots. The male Adonis Blue has brilliantly-coloured blue wings that gives this butterfly its name.
Ref: UKbutterflies.co.uk
The primary larval food plant was Horseshoe Vetch (Hippocrepis comosa) which it needed to complete it's life cycle.

Recently in a garden centre near me, I found a Buddleia "Adonis Blue". It might be a nice plant, but by any colour chart, I thought, it did not resemble the bright blue of the male butterfly and I also thought that the butterfly was not normally found nectaring on buddleia (garden butterfly bush) for habitat specific reasons (Chalk Downland), so I found the named cultivar connection, distasteful.

Re: New Hybrid Plant Cultivars with "Butterfly Names"

Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2020 10:35 pm
by MrSp0ck
The Plant may not be named after the butterfly in the first place, as somebody who has named many cultivars/hybrids, if it meets all the conditions it will be registered for all time under that name. Having named Passiflora Snowflake, with Yellow flowers, because it flowered in January when snow was falling outside for example. Passiflora Silly Walks named because of stepping over 100s of plant pots with a pair of tweezers in my hand with the pollen pad to create it in the first place, meant doing a Silly Walk like John Cleese to do it, its also a Hybrid of "Silly Cow" not one of my hybrids.

every seed from a cross will need a different name, so the best 20 or 30 from one plant cross will all need to be done, so you soon run out of names.

Latin names cannot be used in cultivars/hybrids, as they are reserved for Species. eg Passiflora Chalkhill Blue would be ok but Passiflora Lysandra Coridon would not for a cultivar/hybrid