We write our plant tags out by hand on discarded vinyl blinds with indelible markers, and there’s always the internal debate of whether it’s better to be informal and recognizable or technically correct (because writing both gets tiresome). Personally I lean towards accuracy rather than approachability because technically correct is the best kind of correct, but even my plant friends think I’m a nerd. Who’s with me?
I think you’ve raised a very salient point, especially in the age of reclassifying due to genomic testing. There are so many species undergoing these changes, and it’s daunting to think of the information that could be lost in those cases, or even just harder to track down.
We ran a small experiment at market the other day, having written out both; the plants with the common names showing forward had more interactions but the ones with binomials showing generated longer conversations. It’s an interesting dynamic.