nichepoetryandprose

As I have worked on my poetry project about eating local foods, I have researched each wild plant, found it in its natural environment, and then written about it.  With all this, I am exposed to the words and characteristics of a particular plant and it is never certain which way the ‘muse’ will take me when I write the poem.  Sometimes, I end up creating a poem about eating local food, and sometimes, I get a poem about something else.  Usually these stray poems are, in some way, about the name of the plant.

I find the names of plants are very inspiring.  First is the Latin or scientific name, familiar to me after years of botanizing, but mysterious to most people.   I love to find out about the origins of the name and I usually discover the name is descriptive of the plant.  An example is the scientific name for Yellow Wood-sorrel (Oxalis stricta L.), a small yellow-flowered, three-leaved plant of waste areas.  The name stricta means ‘erect’, referring to the way the plant grows when young or the way its seed pods are held.  The word oxalis is from the Greek oxys meaning ‘sour’, a reference to the taste of the leaves.

The common names of plants are also intriguing.  Sometimes these are different for each area where the plant is found.  For example, the Cloudberry (Rubus Chamaemorus L.), a small relative of Blackberry with a peach-colored fruit, is known locally (and particularly in Newfoundland) as Bakeapple.  Plant names may also refer to a characteristic of the plant.  A good example is Heal-all (Prunella vulgaris L.), a small purple flower.  It inhabits waste areas and lawns, becoming small and compact if mowed.  One of its common names, ‘Carpenter Weed’, comes from this characteristic… Carpenter Weed mends holes in lawns!   The name Heal-all comes from the old belief that the plant has medicinal properties.

‘heal-all’ Copyright Jane Tims 2011

So, among my collection of poems about edible plants, I have a group of poems about the plants and their names, but not about their use as local foods.  I have to decide whether or not to include them in my collection, or to set them free!

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Heal-all

(Prunella vulgaris L.)

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snug Prunella, neat little weed

prim and proper, gone to seed

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first called Brunella: gatherers found

Prunella purple fades to brown

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a carpenter weed, busy, strong

mends bare patches on the lawn

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heal-all, self-heal – your name suggests

an herbal secret you possess

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©  Jane Tims  2012