The other checker, with a bemused smile on her face, said, "It's kuh-LAN-cho."
I'm old enough to sometimes remember to attempt to be gracious. I also know that the Latin names of plants are not always pronounced just one way. So I smiled at the woman and said, "I learned something today, thanks." (It wasn't easy, but it felt strangely good.)
And this evening as I was looking at the growing sunshine in our kitchen (most commonly I've seen orange rather than yellow kalanchoe) I remembered that exchange, and no longer quite so graciously, wanted to see if maybe she wasn't wrong.
LandscapingAbout.com says this:
. . . the pronunciation of the scientific names of plants can be downright confusing! And the confusion is exacerbated by the fact that, in some cases, there is more than one proper pronunciation for the word. Thus you can go your whole life hearing the certain (and proper) pronunciations of the scientific names of plants, only to encounter other (equally proper) pronunciations that leave you scratching your head. [that was me scratching Saturday]David Beaulieu, who wrote this article, compiled a list of the top 10 most difficult common plant names. The last on the list is Kalanchoe.
10. Kalanchoe: My favorite, with its 4 pronunciations, all of which are correct--
If you're interested, the other nine names on the list are Clematis, Peony, Cotoneaster, Poinsettia, Chamomile, Achillea, Lamium, Lupine, and Forsythia. But if you want to know how to pronounce them you have to go to the landscaping website.
'nucular' was never an issue for me. I figure it's a regionalism, like people in Alaska dropping the first 'c' in Arctic.