human confusion about plants
falling down a houseplant research rabbithole.
pothos are not actually scientifically named pothos anymore. some different varieties of pothos houseplants are actually different genuses. genii. whatever
houseplants get incorrectly identified all the time. so the ddg image search for "jade pothos" gives me about four different plants within the first couple rows
anyway, apparently common usage of the word "pothos" in english-speaking countries is just "vining houseplants with heart-shaped leaves," even though plant scientists are like "hold on, we figured out they're actually not related"
this is not confusing at all 
human confusion about plants
@twistylittlepassages yeah houseplant common names are absolutely rife with taxonomic misclassifications—there are two plants commonly called “split leaf philodendron” and neither of them are philodendrons 😂 (they are also in totally different families from each-other, for bonus confusion)
human confusion about plants
@twistylittlepassages yeah i mean tbf thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum does not exactly roll off the tongue—i have to re look it up every time
i guess the lesson here is to just try to pick common names that have nothing to do with the scientific name haha
human confusion about plants
@Satsuma yeah! I was like "why do they call it ZZ plant... oh, I see" 😆
human confusion about plants
@Satsuma that sounds... par for the course for what I'm learning, honestly