lunularia
L-U-N-U-L-A-R-I-A
Said loon-yoo-LAIR-ee-uh. In full, Lunularia cruciata.
Crescent-cup liverwort, the flat green sheet that colonises plant pots, path edges and glasshouse gravel. The spelling is one letter repeated in three places, which is exactly what makes it hard to write down from hearing.
Why the sound and the spelling disagree
From lunula, Latin for a little moon, the diminutive of luna. The gemma cups sitting on the surface of the thallus are crescents, and that is what the name is about. Every vowel in the first three syllables is a u, and none of them is stressed.
A liverwort that spreads across damp bare ground as a flat green thallus, carrying crescent-shaped cups of gemmae on its upper surface.
Spellings people type after hearing it
- lunalariaan unstressed vowel blurring
- lunuluriaan unstressed vowel blurring
- lunelariaan unstressed vowel blurring
- lewnulariathe long u, the one that starts with a y
- lunullariaa doubled consonant under the stress
- lyounulariathe long u, the one that starts with a y
- lunnulariaa doubled consonant under the stress
- lyoonulariathe long u, the one that starts with a y
- lanulariaan unstressed vowel blurring
- lenulariaan unstressed vowel blurring
- lunularriaa doubled consonant under the stress
More in Liverworts and hornworts: marchantia, anthoceros.