Restoring our plants’ lost names

[Anchor]

During the Japanese colonial period, the forced adoption of Japanese-style names, known as "changssi gaemyeong," is also a sad remnant of history.

It wasn't just people's names that were changed.

It affected countless plants, flowers, and trees in our mountains and fields.

A meaningful journey has begun at the National Arboretum to commemorate the 80th anniversary of liberation.

Ise-heum Lee reports.

[Report]

The first plant taxonomist in our country, Teacher Jeong Tae-hyeon.

From the late Joseon Dynasty to the post-liberation period, he collected thousands of plant specimens across the Korean Peninsula and compiled the first Korean plant encyclopedia.

This is the newly discovered plant 'Minsangyeolguinamoo' that he found.

However, the scientific name is written in a Japanese style.

This is because he had to use the name 'Kawamoto Daigen' due to the forced name change during the Japanese colonial period.

As a result, many of the new plant species he discovered have long been regarded as the achievements of Japanese scholars.

[Jang Gye-seon/National Arboretum Researcher: "It has a Japanese name, and if you look below, it shows that Jeong Tae-hyeon is written in Korean, providing evidence that Kawamoto Daigen is Teacher Jeong Tae-hyeon..."]

In celebration of the 80th anniversary of liberation, the National Arboretum has embarked on a mission to restore the names of the new plant species discovered by him.

In the case of Minsayeolguinamoo, they have included his Korean name in the scientific name and received international recognition.

[Im Yeong-seok/National Arboretum Director: "All committee members unanimously agreed to change the scientific name. We proved the process of changing the scientific name on the (International Plant Name Index) site and that it is reasonable according to the international plant naming conventions."]

The National Arboretum plans to further change scientific names as more data is accumulated.

Additionally, they are working to reclaim 15 species of native plants from the Korean Peninsula that were exported overseas during the Japanese colonial period, bringing them back after a century.

This is Ise-heum Lee from KBS News.