The Plant Family History Group was formed in 1990.

Web site: usage since July 2000; last updated Jan 6th 2012.

Note on the meaning of Plant.The frequently repeated claim that Plant means a 'gardener' is flawed in that it relies on the names Plantebene and Planterose while ignoring others such as Plantefolie and Plantefene, which suggest another meaning. Contemporary scholastic and literary sources suggest the meaning 'soul implant' or 'offspring' for Plant. Such a meaning 'young offspring' was proposed in an early twentieth-century dictionary. This was before the mid twentieth-century conception 'gardener' which was, however, widely repeated without regard to the full evidence.

Geographical range of the meaning. The earliest known form of the name is de la Planta alias de Plant'. This is found in 1202 for a landholder in the Angevin homeland of Geffrey Plante Genest (whose name was later corrupted to `Plantagenet'). Subsequently, the main homeland of the surname Plant was in the Plantagenet palatine of Chester. It can be noted that de la Planta can mean 'from the shoot' or 'offshoot' (cf. 'offspring'); and, the Plant surname is found mostly near Wales, where the meaning is 'children' (cf. 'offspring'). This commonality of meaning can be explained by common cultural influences spreading along the Atlantic coast of Europe with trade extending from Aquitaine in SW France as far as the important medieval port of Chester. Recent DNA and population findings suggest that the Plant surname belonged to an abnormally large single family stemming from many polygynous children.