Context matters, so please look to discuss each term on Twitter to understand the situations where a seemingly benign term may be considered offensive by some.

As an initial source of potential terms, we are processing a document published by American Public Gardens Association on potentially problematic common names. On page 30 of their document, you’ll see a list they warn may be triggering which has been deliberately presented at illegibly small size, with direction to copy and paste into another document to resize and examine.

The introduction begins, “Botany, as a field, is deeply intertwined with the histories of colonialism, racism, and imperialism. Both vernacular and botanical nomenclatures have been used over time with little consideration as to how they might perpetuate past harms and amplify present biases. They are well overdue for review.”

https://www.publicgardens.org/file/57694/download?token=nFkvO9rN

List of Terms