Ferns of wall and rock
woodsia
say WOOD-zee-uh
Woodsia ilvensis
A small genus of mountain ferns named after a person, which makes it the one name on this site you can spell from a fact rather than from a rule.
What it is
The plant
Woodsia ilvensis is oblong woodsia, sometimes called rusty woodsia for the pale brown scales on the underside of the frond. It grows in rock crevices and on mountain ledges, is very rare in Britain, and has a distinctive habit: the frond stalks are jointed and snap off cleanly at the joint, leaving a stubble of old bases around the crown. The specific name means of Elba, from Ilva, the Latin name for that island.
Why
Why the letters and the sound disagree
This is a surname with a Latin ending on it. Robert Brown named the genus in 1810 for Joseph Woods, an English architect and botanist, and the whole of the man's name is sitting inside the plant's: Woods plus -ia. Once you see Woods in it the spelling stops being guesswork, because the ending is the only part that was ever in question.
Recorded
Spellings people arrive at
- woodseaan unstressed vowelBecause both halves are English words, and neither of them is in the name.
- wodsiaone sound, two lettersTwo.
- woudsiatwo letters, one vowelwoodsia, with oo.
- woodshathe endingwoodsia. The ending is -ia, the same ending fuchsia has.
- wudshiatwo changes at onceSearch for woodsia instead.
- wudsiatwo letters, one vowelThe vowel is oo: woodsia.
- woudshiatwo changes at oncewoodsia: oo at the front, no h at the back.
- woudshatwo changes at onceThe name is woodsia.
- woodshiathe endingThere is no h in woodsia.
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