origin of name "Liatris"
I love etymology of plant and insects names, so here goes...
Coffey (1993) and online sources note that the origin of the genus name "Liatris" is obscure. Guessing there was an interchange of "i" and "l" at some point, I might speculate it is from Greek "iatros" = physician. (The plant was long reputed to have therapeutic properties.) Poking around the Internet, I do see mention of a Greek combining form of that root as "-liatros".
" Heliatros means one who not only cuts corns, but who treats them in every regard. Tyliatros means the same in the modern Greek sense and is today used in Athens to signify what the English-speaking people call a chiropodist." (Lewi, 1914)
Edit. A good source on etymology in biology is The Century Dictionary. Its says:
Liatris. [NL (J.C.D. Schreber, 1774); origin unknown]
I've run this by a botanist I know and will see if they have any ideas on further research that could be done.
References
- Coffey, History and Folklore of North American Wildflowers (Houghton Mifflin, 1993), pp. 268-9
- Lewi, The Textbook of Chiropody (1914--Google Books)
- The Century Dictionary (p. 3431), entry for Liatris--available at http://www.global-language.com/century/
