David Douglas's Discoveries & Introductions

David Douglas discovered thousands of plants, mosses and seaweeds. Many were not of interest to the Horticultural Society because they would not thrive in the British climate or were too fragile to succeed; and there was limited use of many of the mosses and seaweeds.

The list reproduced below has been compiled over many years at Glasgow Botanic Gardens, where many of Douglas's plants are grown grouped together. It details Douglas's better-known plants and does not attempt to be comprehensive or exhaustive.

“The Plants of David Douglas: What's in a Name?” Plant names came into existence in order to avoid confusion when learning about them. All organisms have a common name and a scientific name. While scientific names are unique, common names are not. An organism (plants and animals) may have many common names, but only one internationally accepted scientific name. For a long time, scientists faced the problem that one species of plant or animal might have many different names according to which language you spoke or where you lived. This caused all sorts of problems when scientists got together to discuss their research. They might all be talking about the same tree, but using different names, which could become very confusing.

In 1758, a Swedish biologist, Carl Linnaeus, decided that everyone should be using the same name to describe the same species. Linnaeus proposed a universal naming system using the Latin language. Known as binomial nomenclature, the naming system uses two words. The first part is the genus. A capital letter is used as the first letter. The second name is called the specific name and is always in lower case. Scientific names are italicized and common names are not.

“Pinus” (the name David Douglas gave to the tree now named for him) is the Latin word for “pie.” Softwoods and hardwoods use a cone rather than a fruit for their seeds. Conifers are evergreens, but not all evergreens are conifers. Broadleaf trees for the most part are deciduous, that is they lose their leaves each fall.

The growth in botanical knowledge since Douglas's day means that many species have been reclassified and therefore claim new names. For example, Douglas gave the name Lilium pudicum to what we now know as Fritillaria pudica. The list names the plants as they are currently known.