Hamamelidaceae

I have to post about one of my greatest accomplishments in higher learning to date. You see, I am a big proponent of having a well-rounded education across disciplines. When I teach zoology I often talk about how things got their scientific and/or common names. This requires some knowledge of Latin language, Greek mythology, History, etc. (an example is the Gordian Worm, which is named after the Gordian Knot. If you don't know about it...Look it up!).

Anyway, recently my knowledge of things outside of biology greatly helped me to learn about the Sweetgum tree. I've known the scientific name of Sweetgum for years (Liquidambar styraciflua). But I did not know that it is in the Witch Hazel family which is called Hamamelidaceae. Well, I had to know that for a quiz. So I wondered how in the world I could easily remember that?! Well, with some help from my good friend Billy Shakespeare, I figured it out. Try to follow me on this:

Hamamelidaceae reminds me of the name Hamlet, a play written by Shakespeare. But that doesn't help me a lot on its own. So, we dig deeper. Hamlet is a play about someone who wants to become king so he kills the king (who happens to be his own brother) and becomes king himself, only to die by the end of the play. Well, Shakespeare wrote a very similar play (though not as good) called MacBeth. In MacBeth, the king is killed because MacBeth wants to become king (actually it's his wife who wants him to become king), but MacBeth is also killed by the end of the play. So Hamamelidaceae reminds me of Hamlet which in turn reminds me of MacBeth, but why is MacBeth important? You probably won't ever go to a play called MacBeth. Actors are very superstitious (hence 'break a leg' instead of 'good luck') and they believe that MacBeth (the play) is cursed. In the play, there are three characters who are witches ('Double, double, toil and trouble' comes from the witches in MacBeth). That reminds me of the Witch Hazel family. Well, the legend says that the witches were based on real witches who got mad at Shakespeare and cursed his play. So anytime it plays someone dies or some other tragedy happens. So they always change the name to something else. But the point is, the witches cursed the play and what do you do if you step on a Sweetgum ball (it has all those stickers on it)? You curse! Actually, I don't curse, but it can be tempting.

So I can remember the family Hamamelidaceae because it reminds me of Hamlet. Hamlet reminds me of MacBeth with has witches in it which, in turn, reminds me of the Witch Hazel family. And the witches supposedly cursed the play which reminds me that you want to curse when you step on Sweetgum balls. So Sweetgum is in the Witch Hazel family which is also called Hamamelidaceae! Isn't that amazing!? None of this would have been possible without Shakespeare! Am I not a genius?!

See, a liberal arts education is important.