# Mato o barillera



## Margherita2001

Hi 
I need to translate into English the names of the following plants (which can be found in Fuerteventura):
Mato o barillera, matamoro, brusquilla, tebete, saladillo.
Can you help please?
Thank you very much.


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## agromusica

No es fácil conseguir los nombres comunes en otra lengua a partir de un nombre común. El nombre científico es indispensable para poderlos traducir correctamente y aún así tampoco es fácil porque en este tipo de plantas hay mucha confusión taxonómica

allí va un intento:

Barilla o mato negro= _Salsola genistoides _: "*Saltwort"*
Matamoro o brusquilla = _Suaeda vermiculata : _could be *"Seepweed"* o "*Sea Blite"*
Tebete = _Patellifolia patellaris _: *Beet* (????)

Otra opción sería no traducirlos porque los nombres comunes que te he dado se aplican a muchas especies del mismo género. 

saludos


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## Margherita2001

Thank you for replying and for your suggestions.


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## k-in-sc

I don't think _Patellifolia patellaris _is a beet (remolacha)!


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## Margherita2001

I am sorry for not being able to reply to you in Spanish, I am Italian but when I was in London I used to have a couple of Spanish friends, I can understand quite a bit of it, but unfortunately I never took up a course.
Anyway, is out there an expert in plants who could give me a hand please?
Thank you very much.


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## k-in-sc

It's true that you can't be precise on obscure plant names. That's the reason scientific names exist! Your best bet is to give the Spanish and Latin names or the Latin name and a description, or else find somebody from the area who can tell you what they would be called. Good luck!


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## agromusica

In the case on Patellifolia patellaris I would use without any doubt the Spanish name, tebete, because I'm almost sure that there is no name in English.

This plant has another widely used cientific name: Beta patellaris. As you can see, it is a very close relaitve of Beta vulgaris: the beet. Them can even hybridize among them.

The Spanish botanists decided that the plant was different enough to make it another genus, but, for a not very specialized audience, that isn't so important. Thme are very similar. This happens very oft in botanic.

The way you use plant names and descriptions depends, like almost every text, on the audience, to which the text is addressed. There are different levels of accuracy.
For example, you can talk about pines in a broad sense and refer to any pine species, or talk specifically about the Ponderosa Pine (_Pinus ponderosa_): But the difficulties doesn't finish here. There are species that share common name: _Pinus halepensis_ and _Pinus brutia_ are both known as Aleppo Pine.........

The other english names that I gave: Saltwort, Seepweed and Sea Blite are also generic names like pine. Them comprise the whole group. 

Translating common names of rare plants is a hard thing.

Salud


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## k-in-sc

Isn't that interesting! That's why I love this forum -- I always learn so much.
What I meant was that if you just translated it as "beet," your readers obviously would imagine a cultivated, garden-variety beet. But describing it as "a wild relative of the beet" or "a plant in the beet family" could be very useful.


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## agromusica

Hello again: another common generic name for the genus _Beta_ is "chard"= acelga.

And I also love this forum!


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## Margherita2001

Thank you very very much for replying and helping me out!
Salud (one word learnt...)


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