Hosta Names - PeeDee Name Discussion

Sometimes the “simple” action of naming a hosta can become quite complicated. One of the classic examples of this situation involved the hostas of Ursula Syre-Herz who just wanted to give her introductions a series name involving the name of a local river basin in South Carolina. The name of the river was Pee Dee so all her plants would be in the format H. ‘Pee Dee Elfin Bells’ for example. Sounds simple enough until the “official” rules for naming plants come into play. Then it gets complicated.

The following is a summary of the journey that Ursula’s hosta names took from Pee Dee to Peedee and finally to PeeDee. It was written by then Hosta Registrar, Kevin Walek and appeared in the 2007 Registrations booklet.

Preamble 9 of the 2004 edition of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature states: The only proper reasons for changing a name of a plant are either a more profound knowledge of the facts resulting from adequate taxonomic study or the necessity of giving up a name that is contrary to the Rules of a Code. In this case, the name is not changed, but the spelling is corrected in this case to the form originally desired by the authors of the name. The original spelling “Pee Dee” could not be registered under a previous Code as explained later. The original name is acceptable under the new Code, as detailed study now shows. Article 32 declares that correcting the spelling of a cultivar epithet should be used with reserve, especially if the change affects the first syllable and above all the first letter of such an epithet. This is not the case in this correction.

Recently, a letter sent to the THJ (The Hosta Journal) editor referred to a caption in the story “The Best Gardens You’ll Never See” in Volume 38, Number 2. That letter referred to a caption contained and also referenced a prior article by Warren Pollock where he discussed the “Peedee” hostas in “What’s in a Name,” Volume 37, Number 3, page 11, where Warren talks about why the “d” is lower-case.

Because of that letter, I as Registrar, and W. George Schmid, as Chairman of the AHS Nomenclature Committee began to refresh our recollection of the history involved in the registration of the “Peedee” hostas.

If you happen to have a copy of the original Silverbook (which was published in 1992, with all registrations from inception through 1991), you will see that from inception “Peedee” was spelled as Warren mentions. But this does not tell the whole tale. Further, I went back to the original registration forms and found that the first registered “Peedee” was H. ‘Peedee Elfin Bells’.

When I was editor of the Journal, I also helped David Stevenson with the layout of the Registration Issues and the second “Silverbook” and I dusted off my old notes as I remembered asking David about this, as I pass through the Pee Dee (Little, Great and Lesser) River Basin of North and South Carolina on my way to Florida, and always get a kick out of the name, but wondered why Ursula had it as one word. You will note that I use it as two words with both in caps. If you Google “Peedee,” or “PeeDee” it asks you if you meant “Pee Dee,” and you will note that it lists many correct, historic, geographic, scientific, and other U.S. references to “Pee Dee” but also to “PeeDee.”

In response, David indicated to me at the time that, when the original submissions came in to Warren Pollock (who was then editor of the Journal) and Merv Eisel (who preceded David as registrar), Warren and Merv had made the decision, because under the 1980 International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (“the Code”) no more than 3 words could constitute a cultivar name. In addition, by Code and in common English usage, capitals do not exist in the middle of a word so they made it “Peedee” (later Code issues also allow interspersed capitals). Thus, to prevent denying H. ‘Pee Dee Elfin Bells’ it became ‘Peedee Elfin Bells’.

Merv had this “approved” by Ursula at that time, and thus he registered the name accordingly. This remained a consistent practice with David Stevenson following Merv’s example as to the Peedee usage.

In 1997, the issue arose anew when Jim Wilkins became registrar and revisited this issue. As a consequence, George did some considerable research on this River’s name. In short, George found that all versions are correct. Many native Carolinians use the old name, i.e., Peedee, which was the name of an Indian tribe in the area. That was the only way it was spelled in colonial times. The modern spelling on maps is Pee Dee, but many old-timers there refuse to use that “newfangled spelling.” However, it was decided at that time, with all the new registrations that were coming in that the registrar would continue to use Peedee.

The origin of the name goes back to Juan Pardo's second expedition to South Carolina in the late 1560's. He recorded the existence of a tribe called Vehidi (pronounced Ve-ee-dee) in their language with the V being an “explosive” sound. This may have been the way it sounded to the European settlers. Vehidi phonetically became Veedee (notice: one word) became Peedee or PeeDee, and later Pee Dee. Today the tribe is known as the Pee Dee. There is no one way to spell it. The various spellings constitute what we call synonyms in botany.

Modern spelling uses all of the existing ways of spelling the name: The United States Geological Survey and Corps of Engineers spell it the new way (Pee Dee) and most river system maps have it that way. Then again, some modern Carolinian agencies purposefully use the old spelling, but with the “Dee” capitalized, like the North Carolina Office of Environmental Education, which uses PeeDee as in “Yadkin-PeeDee. The basin’s Uwharrie Mountains are the remains of an ancient chain of volcanic islands that were pushed upwards during the collision of the African and North American continents.”

The spelling PeeDee is also supported and used by the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Also, The Yadkin PeeDee River Basin Association (“YPDRBA”) uses PeeDee. It is THE coalition of point source dischargers in the Yadkin River basin. This coalition was formed to consolidate the stream monitoring that must occur in order to comply with NPDES permits. So there are plenty of important users of the version PeeDee and several scientific papers and books have been published using the PeeDee in their titles. In modern spelling, the second D is always capitalized, space or no space, as in Pee Dee and PeeDee.

Thus, as it was requested by the Registrant and is allowed under the current version of the Code, and appears the way the registrant wanted it to be from the beginning, accordingly, I have made the change to “PeeDee”, which will be reflected going forward beginning with the publication of this the 2007 Registration Issue, as under the Code official usages must be published to become effective.

	1987 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Elfin Bells’. This name was registered correctly, but see discussion above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee Elfin Bells’.
	1987 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Gold Flash’. This name was registered correctly, but see discussion above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee Gold Flash’.
	1987 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Graymulkin’. This name was registered correctly, but see discussion above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee Graymulkin’.
	'1989 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Treasure’. This name was registered correctly, but see discussion above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee Treasure’.
	1990 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Absinth’. This name was registered correctly, but see discussion above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee Absinth’.
	1990 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Spring Fever’. This name was registered correctly, but see discussion above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee Spring Fever’.
	1992 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Dew Catcher’. This name was registered correctly, but see discussion above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee Dew Catcher’.
	1992 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Granny Smith’. This name was registered correctly, but see discussion above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee Granny Smith’.
	1992 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Laughing River’. This name was registered correctly, but see discussion above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee Laughing River’.
	1992 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Picotee’. This name was registered correctly, but see discussion above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee Picotee’.
	1996 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Apollo’. This name was registered correctly, but see discussion above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee Apollo’.