Hi Skritter World,

Any botanists out there who also know Chinese?

I learned the word 仙人掌(xiānrénzhǎng) today, but my dictionary has 霸王树 (bàwángshù). Is there a difference between these words? Is one used more than the other? Is it a regional thing?

Thanks in advance~

My gf ain't a botanist but does like roses and that sorta stuff so I asked for her thoughts..... She can't remember having ever heard of 霸王树 and says 仙人掌 is much more commonly used. She googled and also says 霸王树 is not regional or specifically used in dialect. The only difference is 霸王树 might be a different type of cactus. 霸王 means hegemon or overlord and if you google both names, then 霸王树 shows to be a different more uncommon cactus.

So I would say forget about 霸王树 unless you wanna become some sort of Steve Irwin in China:)

thank you sir!

This is a great candidate for google image search disambiguation! Check out the results, they are pretty clear - and it looks like Elwin is correct.