nichepoetryandprose

What do you do if you are stranded beside a highway and have to wait for a long while? I name the plants I see growing in the ditches.

Part of my fascination with plant taxonomy is the interesting origin of the plant names. This includes both the Latin ‘scientific’ names and the common names. Many scientific names for plants can be traced to their physical characteristics. However, with references to mythology and local lore, and the modern unfamiliarity with Latin and Greek, the origin of many names may seem quite obscure.

For example, the Latin species name for Buttercup is Ranunculus, from the Latin name for ‘little frog’; Pliny gave this name to the plant because it grew where frogs lived. Some plants were named because they resembled parts of common animals; Larkspur has the specific name Delphinium since the flower resembles the shape of a dolphin. Other plants were given names because they reminded botanists of everyday objects – the species name of Meadowsweet is Spirea, from the Greek speira, wreath.

Meadowsweet (Spirea latifolia (Ait.) Borkh.)

Common names may vary with location. One of the reasons for using scientific names is the variety of common names assigned to a single plant by people of different localities. Botanists needed a way to make sure they were talking about the same plant. So Virgin’s Bower, or Devil’s-darning-needle, or Devil’s Hair, or Lovejoy, or Traveller’s Joy, or Love Vine are known by one scientific name, Clematis virginiana L.

Many common names also include references to mythology or religion. Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara L.), the dandelion-like flower blooming in our ditches almost before the snow has disappeared, is also called Son-before-the-Father, which refers to the appearance of flowers before the leaves.

Since New Brunswick is a bilingual province, I like to know the French common names for plants as well as the English. Some examples of French names for common flowers include pas-d’âne (literally donkey-steps) for Coltsfoot, immortelle (meaning immortal) for Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea (L.) C.B. Clarke), and herbe aux gueux (meaning beggar or tramp) for Virgin’s bower.

So, what is this plant, discovered beside a stretch of highway while we waited for our friends to arrive?

what is my name?

~

common name unknown

~

1.

stranded beside the highway

entirely industrial

chain-link fence, ditches sandy dry

we passed the time

naming the familiar

giving names to unknown

road-side 

vegetation

~

 2.

three-leaflets

definitely clover

but what species

what common names might suit

a crowded cloud

of soft and purple

flower?

~

3.

we tried ‘common’

clover cloud

clover crowd

muffin-mound

rabbit’s whiskers

pussy-toes

pillow-fill

billow hill

lavender clover

Purple Pleiades Pleione

please!

~

3.

we tried Latin

Trifolium

lavandula

purpura

porphyrophobia

fluffense

~

we mixed Latin with Italian

musical notation

Trifolium pianissimo

very soft

~

4.

our drive arrived

our wait was over

botanical field-guide

verified Trifolium arvense

Rabbit-foot, ‘of-the-field’, Hare’s-foot, Stone Clover

~

a footnote:  sometime the botanical description is no help at all…

Trifolium arvense L.

“…long-villous 10-nerved sessile campanulate calyces crowded, spreading, their setiform teeth much longer that the tube and the marcescent corolla…”

Fernald, Gray’s Manual of Botany, 1950.

© Jane Tims 2011