Format: ORAL

Devin Dotson1, Amy Highland1, Dr. Susan K. Pell1

1 United States Botanic Garden, Washington, DC, USA

The words we use to communicate can ensure a successful transmission of our intentions, or result in our audience disengaging or being offended. Many scientific communities are reevaluating the words we use to talk about discovery and species diversity. Plant names and stories are sometimes linked to racism, antisemitism, colonialism, or other offensive or difficult topics. Botanic gardens, which operate at the intersection of plant science, horticulture, and public engagement, are well-suited to address offensive plant common names. We interact with the public about plant nomenclature daily, whether actively with programming or passively with plant labels and interpretive signs. The public garden community and our visitors would also benefit from the changing of offensive scientific names. Replacing and/or interpreting offensive names creates a more welcoming environment for all visitors. At the U.S. Botanic Garden, we have taken a multi-pronged approach to addressing offensive plant names and welcoming people to appreciate plants. Our Horticulture team reviewed plant names in our living collection database with a focus on replacing offensive common names to help ensure public labels do not offend employees or visitors or make them feel unwelcome. As part of our ongoing process to ensure people feel welcome at the Garden, all employees are invited to flag plant common names they find problematic or offensive. We share transparent stories of our institutional history, addressing past practices we would not support today, and on some garden tours, we highlight the importance of replacing offensive plant names. Institutions have an opportunity to reach a wider audience by making relatively small changes to remove offensive plant common names. This work is a journey, not a single task, and involves conversations with garden audiences, local community members, and subject matter experts to lead to more people feeling welcome in public gardens and the plant sciences.