That's because we on the West Coast pronounce it "few-sha." It's impossible to guess the spelling from that pronunciation and I would have to look it up myself if I didn't know the word in Russian is pronounced "fewk-see-ya." I recently was surprised to learn that this is the correct pronunciation in English too, and that it's the way the word is commonly pronounced everywhere but the West Coast.

- And in Texas.

So all I have to do is blame it on where I grew up? I'll go with that.

You mean it's not pronounced few-sha? That's how I've always heard it.. and I've never been to CA. In NY that's how it's pronounced (at least in upstate NY)...

They say "few sha" in the NYC area also. They are such beautiful plants, but very short lived in this area.

I wish that they had scientific add on dictionaries for firefox that had all of the plant names. Maybe they do for the new version, I should check again.

hum I'v all ways said FEW SHA every one I know dose

I guess we're all equally ignorant!

Now I don't remember how to spell it.

my plant names and botanical terms book says ;
FUchsia (fu k' si a ;also fu'sha;shi a as a common name ) genus of tropical flowering plants; lady's - eardrops

and I won't be able to spell it in the morning

Well, you all make me feel a lot better. When I found out the correct pronunciation, I posted it somewhere, probably the Clematis cubit, and Evey and everyone else said they always pronounce it FEWK-see-ya and acted surprised that I didn't know. (I bet they didn't know either and were just being condescending.)

So, tell me, how do you pronounce clematis? CLE-ma-tis, cle-MAT-is, or cle-MAHT-is? I use the second pronunciation.

no. 2 also
I get corrected a lot

kleh-MAE-tus is how it's pronounced here in the CO area. Never really saw them before I started gardening.. only 1 other place did I ever see one growing and that was upstate NY and the lady didn't know what it was.

and there's no cool badges for me

Second one for me. : )