My mom tells a story of long ago when a carload of my father’s relatives drove down from their homeland north of Memphis to visit us near Baton Rouge.

One of the women cousins just went on and on about the naked ladies beside the road in Mississippi. After the initial shock of such talk, the Tennessee and Louisiana all-Baptist kinfolk agreed it was the plant we call spider lily the travelers saw growing alongside Highway 51.

My Southern Living Garden Book agrees with me that in addition to the current spider lilies, I do have naked ladies that jump up out of the ground unexpectedly in late July to early August. Throw in a couple of other common and localized names like surprise lily and magic lily and it makes one appreciate the Latin scientific names so we can at least try to get to agreement.

The genus Lycoris accounts for five species of bloom-first, leaves later lilies that grow in the South. One of the five is relegated to the coastal zone only and it is easy to figure out it is the one commonly called hurricane lily.

Another group of bulb plants just as tough as spider lilies is the genus Narcissus. Back when I was a young adult agriculturist, I quickly learned not to argue with full grown women gardeners as to whether daffodils, jonquils and narcissuses were the same or merely related. Minds were made up and they all got the right answer years earlier from their mothers who each had the best flower garden in whatever county was home.

I was a late bloomer, so to speak, in the ornamental plant realm and lacked confidence in the daffodil/jonquil/narcissus debate. I thought I could always get by just knowing the scientific names of the two species of domestic cattle.

As for the daffodils and jonquils, they are both narcissuses. The genus Narcissus includes several species and hybrids of species we commonly call daffodils, though you won’t see the word daffodil as an official taxonomic species name. On the other hand, Narcissus jonquilla is indeed a species separate from the ones called daffodils. In general, daffodils have flat leaves and jonquils have cylindrical leaves. But I won’t argue if someone says otherwise.

Some folks choose between monkey grass and liriope for a ground cover plant or flowerbed edge. The entire genus Liriope is called monkey grass by some while others say monkey grass is only the smaller species of Liriope. And none of them is a grass, so go figure.

Common names are whatever we choose them to be. They sometimes vary for the same plant from place to place. Luckily we agree on most common plant names.

That makes it possible for us to discuss plants, to write about plants and to buy and sell plants with confidence. Surely you don’t want to call your favorite retail nursery to find out if it has Stenotaphrum secudatum.

Look it up. I did.

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Terry Rector writes for the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District, 601-636-7679 ext. 3.