A common name for this plant in French is 'Amour en cage'.

I think the photo at that link just looks like love kept in a cage, somehow...

Ha! Let's continue. Think what a beautiful word "honeysuckle" is. In Italian it's "caprifoglio", meaning goatleaf; German has the same name, only translated: "Geissblatt". Similar for "dandelion", from French "dent de lion", "lion's tooth" (who knows why): it got translated in German to "Lowenzahn" (I'm leaving out the German umlaut markers: the double dots over the vowels).

Cath's common names are lovely: thank you! A rich source of common names in English is 'Jekka's Complete Herb Book' which I bought a fair number of years ago when I wanted a basic guide to herbs. This is a very satisfying volume, by the way, informative, handy to use, and graphically appealing.

Take Lunaria. The English, I understand, call it "honesty"; the American name I've always heard is "money plant". In Italian it's "monete del papa": "the pope's coins". Where the name "honesty" comes from I don't know; all the others refer to the flat silvery seed capsules, which resemble the moon, or silver coins.

There are some fine Latin names, too. I wouldn't mind being called Hesperis matronalis myself. But the best botanical name of them all is the generic name of the cocoa plant: Theobroma, "Food of the gods".

P.S. Cross post: Virginia, you're right, it does.

Tanacetum balsamita is also called Bible leaf. The fragrant leaves were placed between the pages of a family Bible because the herb repelled destructive insects such as silverfish.

I have been told that honesty was named such because the outer pieces of the seed pod are dull and ugly but when peeled off reveal a beautiful interior, like honesty.

Cath

I love some of the names of southern narcissus. There is Lent lily (n. pseudonarcissus), earning its name because it begins blooming during Lent. This year mine began to bloom just after my earliest crocuses, but that is early even for them. Another is silver bells (n. moschatus or maybe one of its hybrids). When these sweet little cream colored trumpets open, they have a drooping head that points down to the ground and do indeed look like little bells. One of my favorites is one called twin sisters (n. x medioluteus), so called because blooms are two to a stem and side by side. It is one of the very few later blooming narcissus that will bloom reliably here.

How about love lies bleeding, a type of annual amaranth? Romantic and so dramatic! The long tendrils of red dangling in a garden always remind me of Italian opera. And lovely lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis)? With morning dew drops sparkling on her pleated cloak. Carol