Update: On 18 July, the International Botanical Congress voted to rename plants that contain caffra and its derivatives, and to create a committee that will address problematic taxonomic designations.

Mr. Langellier is a writer and field botanist in Vermont. In 2009, the botanist Naomi Fraga was hunting a flower without a name near Carson City, Nev. Ms. Fraga saw that the plant was going extinct in ...