Common Crop Names

Common names of crop and "other seed" species found in Scotland

Since the beginning of time man has assigned names to the organisms in their environment. Communication of these names among people from different regions in the world has proven to be very confusing considering all the language and cultural differences involved. Even communicating from one region to another within one country can be difficult. For this reason, scientists have agreed upon a system for naming organisms that is based primarily on Latin.

Whereas common names vary from country to country and even within regions of a country, Latin names are internationally acceptable. For example, Galium aparine is named "Cleavers" in the east of Scotland, "Sticky Willy" in the west and "Goose grass" in the Borders. This is the reason why our seed testing reports refer to Latin names of plant.

To help you interpret your reports see the Common Crop Names document which contains a table that gives a list of Latin names and Common names of crops and other seed species found in Scotland. We are interested in making this list as comprehensive as possible and if you know of a common name of a crop or weed found in your area of Scotland that is not included in our this list please contact