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

@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)