: Re: Pretty flowers with clunky Latin names I am writing a fantasy novel set in the Middle East. For multiple reasons related to both plot and atmosphere, I'm using flowers and flowering trees a

@Ogunnowo420

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Most plants have some commonly used names as humans don't really want to use weird latin descriptions in their everyday conversations. A quick look on Wikipedia for Vachellia tortilis for example yields (emphasis mine):

Vachellia tortilis, widely known as Acacia tortilis but attributed by APG III to the Vachellia genus, is the umbrella thorn acacia

If you want to make this even more descriptive you could choose to have the people in your story call the flower by another name so that it's easier to imagine them:

thorny umbrella-shaped acacia

would be perfectly fine to describe that flower. Looking at your other examples we can come up with some somewhat meaningful names. Sternbergia would become "Golden Goblet" as the description of the plant says

These plants produce golden-yellow goblet-shaped flowers borne on stalks some way above the ground that open during the autumn or early winter.

It's even easier for Faidherbia as the description explicitly says:

Common names for it include apple-ring acacia (their circular, indehiscent seed pods resemble apple rings),[2] ana tree, balanzan tree and winter thorn.

Depending on how you want to portray the tree you could use "Winter Thorn" as a harsh description or "Apple-Ring Acacia" as a more poetic name.

People already took care of your problem - you just have to search for descriptions of your plants, for example by looking through their Wikipedia articles.

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