I'm a big fan of Latin names and try to use them whenever I can. I do a decent job of pronouncing them but the Latin name—Chaenomeles—for flowering quince always stumped me. My reluctance to do what other people are doing when they are doing it keeps me from making resolutions at the new year. For 2013 I decided I would make a resolution but I would keep it simple. I would learn how to pronounce Chaenomeles and I would remember it. And I still do: Chaenomeles speciosa, flowering quince, kee-NOM-uh-leez spee-see-OH-suh.
As I wrote this post, I did a little additional research and found that there are other pronunciations. This one comes from Overplanted.com, the website of Thomas Fischer who prepared these pronunciation guides for Horticulture magazine. And here's his guide to the principles of Latin pronunciation at the Horticulture magazine website.
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