Talk:Ornamental plant

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"Ornamental" is an adjective, not a noun, and has many meanings additional to the one described here. - MPF 13:08, 17 May 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Grammar

"The term is occasionally abbreviated in American English to ornamental (usually as a noun) when used in horticultural contexts; this is regarded a grammatical error in British and other forms of English"

This strikes me as particularly haughty, especially considering the enormous number of differences between British English and American English, not to mention words that the English changed from their original French, Latin, etc. etc. usages, and variances on words dating back centuries within Britian alone. If there is a scientific point the writer was trying to get through, it needs to be stated better. I think I'll change it so it reads: "The term is occasionally abbreviated in American English to ornamental (usually as a noun) when used in horticultural contexts." 66.57.225.77 22:52, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

I agree wholeheartedly. The OED lists ornamental as a noun (A tree, shrub, or plant grown for its attractive appearance), without any "rare" or "U.S." note that would accompany an Americanism or an otherwise uncommon or ungrammatical Commonwealth usage. Moreover, Google shows many UK sites[1] using ornamentals (plural, since it's hard to search for only noun forms of ornamental), including many gov't[2] & academic[3] sites. (Ditto for .au, .nz, and .ca searches.) Ornamental seems to be used as a noun by English-speaking horticulturalists no matter what their dialect. Nevertheless, I'll wait to see if MPF has any good evidence that it's a bona fide abomination to British ears, as he'll likely just revert it again anyway. --Severinus 01:20, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

I've worked in horticulture in the UK for many years. I can attest that 'ornamental' is a commonly used shortening of the full term in the horticultural trades. Imc 19:16, 14 December 2006 (UTC)