The Daily Bucket is a regular feature of the Backyard Science group. It is a place where we share our observations about the natural world. Whether we note the spring migrating birds or the first buds on your trees, we are building a resource to learn more about the patterns of nature and how they may be changing. Everyone is welcome to contribute! Just tell us what you are seeing in your backyard or wherever you are roaming and approximately where your observations come from.
Over the past week, my bird feeders here on the NE corner of the Olympic Peninsula of WA have been visited by a Steller's jay (
Cyanocitta stelleri), a Douglas squirrel (
Tamiasciurus douglasii), and a Townsend's warbler (
Setophaga townsendi). I've planted 10 Pacific dogwoods (
Cornus nuttallii) that I got from the county's native plant sale. These will complement the Douglas-fir (
Pseudotsuga menziesii) and Pacific madrona (
Arbutus menziesii) already on the property. This got me thinking about who these guys were whose names keep appearing in the common and/or scientific names of our PNW flora and fauna. It seemed like a good excuse for a bucket.
Douglas squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii)
It is probably true in other regions, but especially in the Pacific Northwest we seem to be surrounded by reminders of naturalists and explorers who gathered and described our plants and animals for the scientific establishment of the 18th and 19th centuries. Thus, we have names honoring Georg Wilhelm Steller (1709-1746), Archibald Menzies (1754-1842), David Douglas (1799-1834), John Scouler (1804–1871), Thomas Nuttal (1786-1859), John Kirk Townsend (1809-1851), and of course Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) and William Clark (1770-1838) who reached the PNW in 1805. William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865) never made it to the PNW, but his name shows up in several local plant names (e.g. Hooker's willow).
Townsend's warbler (Dendroica townsendi)
Names don't always tell you who first identified the plant or animal. It's the convention to not name a species after oneself. It can get especially confusing since identifying a new species and publishing the name for it may be decoupled. For example, Townsend is credited with first describing the Townsend's warbler, but the name was chosen by Nuttall, as they were travelling together on the 1834 Wyeth expedition to the PNW. While the common name Douglas-fir refers to Douglas, the tree's scientific name honors Menzies who earlier collected a specimen during Captain George Vancouver's voyage on the HMS Discovery (1791–1795). Hooker was sponsor of Douglas and Scouler on their 1824 Royal Horticultural Society expedition to the Columbia and recipient of their plant collections for the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens. He was the author for many of the douglasii and scouleri plant names (according to the USDA plant database). Many of Steller's discoveries from his expedition with Bering in 1791 to present day Alaska bear his name. Since he never returned home, his journals which did manage to reach the Russian Academy were published posthumously.
Menzies' larkspur (Delphinium menziesii)
Stellar was a German working for the Russian Academy of Science. Menzies, Douglas, and Scouler were all Scottish. Nuttal was an Englishman who moved to America in his early 20s. Townsend, Lewis, and Clark were American born.
I was disappointed to learn that Anna's hummingbird (Calypte anna) wasn't named for a woman scientist, but for Anna Masséna, Duchess of Rivoli. It's still a favorite.
Clark's Nutcracker (Nucifraga columbiana)
Lewis's monkeyflower (Mimulus lewisii)
What's going on in your backyard? Please don't feel you need to stick with the topic of naming. If you have some names that are common in your area, it will be interesting to hear about them. But, nature even without history is welcome here.
