If you follow me at all, you’ve probably noticed a theme in a lot of my fantasy stories: I have a lot of magic plants.
Taking just one of my fantasy worlds as an example, I have to date named and described 42 distinct magic plants in the Horticulturati world (plus another eight magic fungi…but who’s counting?). Considering magic plants are one of the main themes of the Horticulturati world, this is probably an outlier among my other works. But even discounting magic plant heists, short stories written as field guides to seed magic, and that one short sci fi story that I wrote purely to play around with the lifecycle of an alien xenofungus, any given story of mine is likely to mention made up plants of some kind.
This should surprise no one. After all, I’m a botanist who writes fantasy and science fiction stories on the side. Of course I’m going to have a lot of magic plants.
Plants are compelling. Everyone should love them as much as me, obviously. 😉
All those magic plants, I think it’s safe to say I have some practice with naming made up plant species. In fact, among my writing friends, it’s common for someone to message me directly to ask for a fantasy plant name (and I kind of love it!).
Since I know not everyone has a PhD in plant biology, and because I’ve been asked this several times by writing friends, I thought it might be helpful to give a few tips and tricks for coming up with magic plant names of your own.
1. Incorporate the plant’s magic properties
Real plant names (at least common names – see point 6 about scientific Latin names below) often incorporate information about what the plant does. For example, cleavers is a plant that will cleave to animal fur (or a hiker’s pants) like Velcro. Feverfew has been used historically to reduce fevers. Bugbane is a bane to bugs – aka a bug repellent that was used to repel bedbugs.
You can totally use this same principle when naming magic plants. Have a plant that can make someone fly? Call it hoverwort. Is there a flower that can turn someone to stone with a touch? Call it stonecreep. What about a plant that has fruits that glow like embers inside a papery covering? Call them fairy lanterns.
2. Use what the plant looks
A lot of plants are named based on what they look like, too. Pitcher plants, one of the groups of carnivorous plants, are named such because they have leaves that are shaped like pitchers that they use to catch prey. Bleeding hearts have pink heart-shaped flowers with what looks like a drop coming from the bottom. Red trumpet vines are vining plants that have – you guessed it – red flowers shaped like the bell of a trumpet.
Does that fruit that grants telepathy look like someone has painted polka dots on it? Name it dappled apple. Does the oak species with acorns you can store memories in have leaves shaped like violins? Name it fiddleleaf oak. Does your made up hallucinogenic fern have leaves that glow faintly purple-blue? Name it ultraviolet fern.
3. Name the plant after a person or place
It’s fairly common for plants to be named after people; famous persons or the scientist who discovered it are most common. St. John’s wort, for example, is named for St. John the Baptist of Bible fame. Darwin’s orchid is named for the famous naturalist after he studied the species extensively. Other plants might be named for locations, either broadly (e.g. eastern redbud or desert rose) or more specifically for an exact location. Japanese maples are native to the country of Japan, and Texas yellow star is from the state of Texas.
Is your magic palm tree that lets you breahte under water only found in the made-up country of Stristos? It’s Stristos palm now. Was the moss that can heal all wounds discovered by Dr. Starfell? Why not name it Starfell sphagnum? If you have a magic plant that turns to gold at maturity (and Midas is part of the world’s mythos), maybe name it Midas rose.
4. Think about what else interacts with the plant
This trick requires you know more about your made up plant than just its use to people, but a little about how it fits into the ecosystem and what else it interacts with. Real plant names do sometimes incorporate these kinds of things. For example, butterfly weed is commonly visited by butterfly pollinators. Squirrels do indeed dig up and eat the corn-shaped tubers of squirrel corn plants. Fireweed is a flower that sprouts extensively in areas after a fire.
Is your plant pollinated by magic chillips? You could call it chillip lily. Does your made up root vegetable provide underground habitat for tunneling rodents? Maybe call it burrowroot. Does that magic pine species have pine cones that fall to the ground and start fires once they’re ripe? Maybe they’re called incendiary pine.
5. Incorporate common plant groups or suffixes
Have you noticed that a lot of plant names have an adjective followed by either a suffix like “wort” or a general plant group (often a genus)? Both naming methods are very common.
For a group or genus of plants, there are often several species that need to be differentiated. Within the oak genus, for example, there are white oaks, red oaks, pin oaks, post oaks, water oaks, black oaks, and many more. Buttercups come in many varieties, too: meadow buttercup, bulbous buttercup, tall buttercup, creeping buttercup, etc. If you have a general idea what your made up plant looks like, this can be a great shortcut for explaining what the species looks like. All oaks are woody trees with acorn fruits. All buttercups are herbaceous plants often with yellow petals. Etc.
But even if you don’t have a specific group of plants in mind for your made up plant to belong to, there are several general suffixes that are frequently used in names. “Wort” for example, which just means “plant,” is common in names like liverworts, bladderworts, and bloodworts. “Weed” is also a common suffix, as in milkweed, chickweed, and ragweed. You may also see terms like “flower” (e.g. passionflower), “leaf” (e.g. heartleaf), “root” (e.g. bloodroot), or even just “plant” (e.g. money plant). The growth form of the plant might also be used a suffix, such as in creosote bush, rubber tree, or passion vine.
Maybe you have a magic plant that is known to make people afraid, but you don’t have a specific visual in mind. You could call it terrorwort. Or if your made up shrub has leaves that have the cupped shape of ears, you could call it earleaf. Maybe you know your plant is a citrus species that has glowing fruits. In that case, something like lambent orange may be an appropriate name.
6. What about Latin names…
I’ll be honest: in most circumstances, you won’t need to know the scientific names (aka Latin names) of the plant species you make up. Most normal people don’t know scientific names for the plants they use, so unless you have a scientist or naturalist type character, the Latin names are probably irrelevant. Plus, if you’re writing in a secondary world, there’s a good chance they won’t use the same naming convention as we do anyway.
That said, if you do have reason to need scientific names for your species, here are a couple of helpful hints:
- Scientific names always have a genus and species. The genus is always capitalized, and the species is always lowercase, and both should be italicized. For example, the scientific name for white pine is Pinus strobus.
- Scientific names are Latinized, meaning they are formatted as Latin words. One side effect of this is that the gender of the genus and species names should always match, which is why it’s Acer rubrum (red maple) but Quercus rubra (red oak). Both are based on the Latin word rubrum, which means red, but the endings differ to match the gender of the genus name.
- Genus names are always the same. All roses are Rosa, all sunflowers are Helianthus, and all spruces are Picea. If you know what genus your species belongs to (assuming it’s an existing one and not made up), all you need to do is look up that genus name and use it.
- Species names are often descriptive (in Latin). For example, Penstemon is a genus that always has five (penta) stamens. Achillea millefolium has leaves divided so many times it looks like they have a thousand (mille) leaves (folia).
My best advice with scientific names, beyond these hints, is to look at some examples of existing scientific names to try to get a feel for them. If you’re really concerned about them, you can always ask a botanist. Generally speaking, we love talking about plants! 😉
I hope you find these tips and tricks helpful as you name your own made up plant species. Try out a few of them (some even work in combination!) to see which you like best, and have fun with your new magic plants!
Nicole L. Soper Gorden 