Sandwiched in between dinosaur articles, a short one of two pages highlights the rare vascular plants of Colorado's High Creek Fen. The March issue of Smithsonian featured a cover illustration of a sunflower, Wyethia scabra, growing on the sand dunes of eastern Utah. Truly common names are those that have originated and evolved with a lay culture. These are legitimate but hardly ever restricted to a single genus or species, especially over a country or continent. Scientific names make it possible for everyone, anywhere in the world, to communicate with each other about organisms.
Vernacular names make it difficult or impossible.
The same goes for Russia, India, China, and Japan. Vernacular names lead to scientific and literary isolationism. Children have no trouble with scientific names, evidence the dinosaurs. Scientific names have meaning and relevance to our language, especially considering the great contribution of Latin and Greek to our common words. Hence, they have educational value.