Erotic plant names

Botanist Malene Østreng Nygård, along with other curators from Norwegian herbarium, has published an article proposing Norwegian names for all plant families in the world.

The researchers encountered a surprise during the naming process - several plants were named after genitalia in various forms.

"Misshapen penis" (Amorphophallus titanum) and "External vagina" (Ecdeiocolea monostachya) are some examples.

Read the interesting interview with the curators on Titan.uio.no and the publication on nomenclature, "Norske navn på alle karplantefamilier og -ordner" (in english), in "Blyttia - Norges Botaniske Annaler".