Pollen Nation

Golden Rod – The Daily Flower for 30 November

One has to wonder whether the Victorian floriographers were thinking of that old warning ‘spare the rod and save the child’ when they decreed that the Golden Rod connoted ‘precaution’ and ‘encouragement’.

Perhaps they had it in mind that plumed, zigzag, velvety, stout or one of the other 100-odd species of golden rod would be used to make the yowling youngsters whole again, as the genus name Solidago hints at.

Golden rod by HK James Ho

In truth, golden rods have been shown to have some valuable medicinal properties. They are however, more of the 'reducing' than 'making whole' variety: particularly helpful as an anti-inflamatory and in cutting down calcium build-up in kidneys.

The more superstitious among us also believe that golden rods bring good luck, but when one’s calamity-struck, it doesn’t take much to twist a rubber arm into believing something will help.

It’s rather unlikely, but that could have been just what happened to Henry Ford when he was in desperate need of some pneumatic inspiration. After all, the tyres of his famous Model T are made from golden rod rubber, which occurs naturally in the stems of these bright yellow flowers.

Send some solidago sprays in our Dozen Yellow Roses hand-tied bouquet

Good for giving to: Land-speed record holders, Kentucky women and Nebraskan men (golden rod is their state flower).

Great golden rods in literature: Pop literature, today, courtesy of Blondie:

“What's that pretty flower I see?
Tall and wild it waves at me
Mother says it's just a weed
Golden Rod, Golden Rod”
From ‘Golden Rod’ on The Curse of Blondie (2003)

Find out more about The Daily Flower series and floriography.

Tags: flowers, golden rod, solidago, floriography

Goldylocks – The Daily Flower for 29 November

That little girl who ate all the porridge was quite a complex character, but she’s nothing compared to her botanical namesake. Not only is there confusion as to the spelling of its everyday epithet – is it Goldylocks, or Goldilocks? Is it hyphenated – but also as to which of her two botanical names one should use – aster linosyris or Chrysocoma linosyris.

Aster linosyris from Prof. Dr. Otto Wilhelm Thomé’s Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz (1885)

Ultimately, it seems (as with the fictional blonde) that it boils down to a matter of taste. Do you want to talk about the flower as ‘a flaxen star’ or ‘flaxen with yellow tufts or hairs’? But don’t think about it for too long and hard, or you’ll find yourself living out Goldylocks’s floriographic connotation: languishing.

Good for giving to: Little girls with a penchant for breaking and entering.

Find out more about The Daily Flower series and floriography.

Tags: flowers, goldilocks, goldylocks, Aster linosyris, Chrysocoma linosyris, floriography

Gorse – The Daily Flower for 28 November

Gorse (a.k.a furze) is the Jekyll and Hyde of the flower world. Except, it’s a bit more complicated, because there are three characters at play: gorse also sometimes goes by the name of whin.

These three different common names perhaps account for gorse’s three different meanings in the Language of Flowers. Firstly, there’s the Jekyllish connotation of ‘endearing affection’; secondly, the Hyde-like ‘anger’; and thirdly, a sort of resolution in the meaning ‘love for all occasions’.

Ulex Europaeus by soapbeard

None of these meanings are very telling about the biological characteristics of the bright-yellow Ulex Europaeus, as gorse is more officially known. There’s nothing that suggests the flower shape is a dead-givaway to gorse’s pea-family background, or that gorse smells mysteriously of coconut, or even that it bears flowers almost all year around. But, after Robert Louis Stevenson uncovered the conundrum of those famed multiple personalities, the Victorian floriographers perhaps felt a need to introduce a little something to keep us guessing.

Good for giving to: Triplets.

Great gorses in literature: When it is good it is very, very good; but when it is bad, it is horrid.

“In the afternoon he walked about the common; and that is gray and dingy too; it is neither country nor town; the gorse is stunted; and all about is the litter of civilisation.”
From Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham

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Tags: flowers, gorse, Ulex Europaeus , floriography

Gentian – The Daily Flower for 27 November

Singapore Slings, Old Fashioneds, Bloody Marys – if those sound like an essential ingredient to a pleasant Sunday afternoon, you’ll be the first to agree that gentians are imbued with intrinsic worth, loveliness and integrity. Although the floriographers who accorded these meanings to the trumpet-shaped flowers are sure to have enjoyed the effects of pinking their gins with bitters, there is another good reason for them to have attributed such worth to today’s flower.

Spring gentian by Alexandre Duret-Lutz

Gentians are quite remarkable for being one of the few flower varieties that really come close to being blue, although some of the almost-200 species come in red, creams and yellows. But it’s the root of the gentian that is really remarkable for its numerous medicinal benefits – from an antiseptic to a gastrointestinal elixir.

A little etymological  research reveals that the Gentiana genus has a sweet folk mythology beghind its name: apparently Gentius, a King of Illyria (200BC), used the plant’s roots to cure his troops of malaria. Intrinsic worth indeed!

Good for giving to: Cocktail connoisseurs and lovers of blue who are filled with loveliness.

Great gentians in literature: Medicinal properties or mere quacksalvery?

“To what amazing infusions of gentian, peppermint, gilliflower, sage, parsley, thyme, rue, rosemary, and dandelion, did his courageous stomach submit itself!”
From The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens

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Tags: flowers, gentian, floriography

Dark Geranium – The Daily Flower for 24 November

It’d be understandable if someone who was marooned was melancholy, but surely being maroon is no cause for miserableness? Not so for dark geraniums, who connote that sense of infinite sadness in floriography.

Geranium phaeum by TeunSpaans

‘Real’ geraniums – dark or otherwise – are in the Geranium genus of the Geraniaceae family, but bear a striking resemblance to the Pelargonium genus. Practiced gardeners tell them apart by their petals: real Geraniums (which are often dubbed cranesbills) have five petals of the same size, while Pelargoiums’ petals can be separated into two upper ones and three lower ones.

But of all the dark geraniums, it would be most plausible that the Victorians were talking about Geranium phaeum, which is not only decidedly deep magenta, but also known as Mourning Widow.

Good for giving to: Anyone down in the dumps.

Great dark geraniums in literature: What a black mood Rod McKuen creates:

“Rimbaud’s sister still keeps guard
over the evil plants and garden,
letting the rain
do most of the watering
letting the sun
do all the hard work.
Here is the dark geranium
and there is the twisted mum.”
From ‘Rimbaud’s Sister’ in Intervals (1986)

Find out more about The Daily Flower series and floriography.

Tags: flowers, geranium, floriography

Fuchsia – The Daily Flower for 23 November

We may never know whether it was the chicken or the egg that came first, but we’re in the pink when it comes to the colour fuchsia and the flower. For the genus of over 100 species of (usually) bright cherry-coloured blossoms was named after a botanist named Leonhard Fuchs.

Fuchsia by isado

What we will probably never know about the fuchsia is why it means so many things to so many different people. In the language of flowers, fuchsias connotes variously taste, frugality, confiding love, humble love, and ‘the ambition of my love thus plagues itself’. We can probably glean a fair bit about the human condition though, from the fact that this flower is associated with third wedding anniversaries.

Good for giving to: Not-so-newly weds with lots of different types of love.

Great fuchsias in literature: Is she lauding or loathing them, one wonders?:

“‘Any place,’ the girl exclaimed as she entered, ‘more unlike a solicitor’s office, I never saw! Flowers outside and flowers on your desk, Mr. Pengarth! Don’t you have to apologize to your clients for your surroundings? There's absolutely nothing, except the brass plate outside, to show that this isn’t an old-fashioned farmhouse, stuck down in the middle of a village. Fuchsias in the window sill, too!’”
From The Malefactor by E. Phillips Oppenheim

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Tags: flowers, fuchsia, floriography

Gourd – The Daily Flower for 22 November

A pumpkin? A squash? A cucumber? You’d be out of your gourd if you thought you could pin down exactly which member of the Cucurbitaceae family the Victorians were talking about when they assigned gourds the connotation ‘unrequited affection’.

Bottle gourd flowers by Megapixel Eye

Although, considering that the connotation was changed in later years to ‘bulkiness’, it seems second-generation floriographers deemed the original authors of the language of flowers to be a bit off their pips (hopefully, they took after the food plant family in question, and were thick-skinned enough to deal with the fact that their fondness for the originally assigned meaning was unreciprocated).

Good for giving to: Chubby lovers who have been given the cold shoulder.

Great gourds in literature: This gourd queen is sure to be bulky, but she also seems much loved:

“Queen of the gourd-flower, queen of the harvest,
Sweet and omnipotent mother, O Earth!
Thine is the plentiful bosom that feeds us,
Thine is the womb where our riches have birth.”
From ‘Harvest Hymn’ by Sarojini Naidu

Find out more about The Daily Flower series and floriography.

Tags: flowers, gourd, Cucurbitaceae, floriography

Hawkweed – The Daily Flower for 21 November

Forget carrots! There’s another orangey delight to help you improve your eyesight. Well, assuming you’re a bird of prey and you consider old wives’ tales to be gospel. For, according to wisdom of yore, the feathery Accipiters used to chomp on the hairy weeds of the Hieracium genus to give themselves eagle eyes – hence the flowers’ common name of hawkweed and their connotation of quick-sightedness.

Orange hawkweed by jhritz

As can be expected of a genus with over 200 species, variation is rife amongst hawkweeds, whose colours range from reds through oranges to yellows and even white. But it’s their assorted names that are most interesting: Houndstongue, Cow, Longbeard, Devil’s Paintbrush, Shaggy and Mousear conjure up some curious mental images. Not that hawkweeds are shy of unusual physical images either. On closer inspection, you’ll notice that the strap-shaped petals are square- or notch-tipped and are actually complete flowers in themselves.

Good for giving to: Proofreaders and other pedants.

Great hawkweeds in literature: A strangely unsettling stanza that makes one wonder if the plant perhaps has other connotations:

“This is the kingdom that quickens and won’t sleep;
the fierce ignited light of tenderness, unburied.
Tonight the moon will rise
full and white, like Medusa’s murdered face.
But she will turn nothing to stone. I have my hawkweed in a bowl,
orange-red as Chinese silk, a fiery bridal veil, a vow.
It is this my eyes will close on.”
From ‘Bridal Veil’ by Laurie Sheck

Find out more about The Daily Flower series and floriography.

Tags: flowers, hawkweed, Hieracium , floriography

Acer – The Daily Flower for 20 November

As any fan of Toronto’s hockey honchos will tell you, the most striking thing about Acers are their definitive palmate leaves. But these sports fanatics are perhaps too quick to forget that there’s much more to the maple tree than its leaves.

Acer rubrum flowers

Acers – whose name is allegedly derived from the Latin word acris, meaning sharp (a purported reference to the fact that the Romans used the wood to make their spears) – are not only a delight to behold in their autumn leaf-coats, but also when they’re in bloom.

The flowers usually appear in dense clusters, which helps to explain their one floriographic connotation of abundance. But what of the meanings ‘you are hard’, ‘success’ and ‘reserve’? No doubt the ancient Romans, Leafs fans and singletons from Hogtown will have their own respective theories.

Good for giving to: Canadians.

Great acers in literature: Did the author see the maples in leaf or in bloom, one wonders:

“Although the evergreens still held dominion over many of the hills that rose on this side of the valley, yet the undulating outlines of the distant mountains, covered with forests of beech and maple, gave a relief to the eye, and the promise of a kinder soil.”
From The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper

Find out more about The Daily Flower series and floriography.

Tags: flowers, Acer, maple, floriography

Bay Laurel – The Daily Flower for 17 November

If you’re the type to be resting on your laurels (or even someone who’s been awarded a baccalaureate, or (chances are slimmer, I know) is a poet laureate), isn’t it about time you knew about your honour’s namesake?

Laurus nobilis from Koehler’s Medicinal-Plants 1887

Contrary to initial suspicions, those laurels don’t refer to Godfathers of Ska, skinny comedians or old British money. They refer to Laurus nobilis, the aromatically leaved Mediterranean plant that bears clusters of tiny trophy-like pairs of golden flowers and connotes those winning attributes: magnificence, success and glory.

Good for giving to: Successmongers, newly-qualified doctors and anyone about to address an oracle.

Great bay laurels in literature: The god of prophecy and poetry makes his pick (but there is more to it than meets the eye, as his beloved Daphne was transformed into a laurel tree to escape his advances):

“Jupiter chose the oak, Venus the myrtle, Apollo the laurel, Cybele the pine, and Hercules the poplar.”
From Fables by Aesop

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Tags: flowers, bay laurel, Laurus nobilis, floriography

Mountain Laurel – The Daily Flower for 16 November

Picture a trio of star-like belles in white, pink and red who symbolise ambition. Are you thinking Charlie’s Angels? You’d be right – but don’t discount mountain laurels as equally apt contenders for this crown.

Kalmia latifolia. Source: www.biolib.de

Like the angels, the all-American Kalmia latifolias are also mistresses of disguise, who travel by such enigmatic monikers as calico bushes, lambkills, clamoun and spoonwood. And they can be equally deadly if you try to eat them. But treat them right, and their gorgeous little inch-wide blossoms will give you infinite pleasure.

Good for giving to: Connecticutians (it’s their national flower) and kick-ass chicks.

Great mountain laurels in literature: Perhaps it should have been Tenacious D instead of Destiny’s Child that sang the theme tune for Charlie’s Angels:

“The mountain-laurel clung to the bleak hillside, careless of wintry wind and snow […] its evergreen leaves for Christmas cheer, its rosy flowers for spring-time, its fresh beauty free to all as it clothed the wild valley with a charm that made a little poem of the lovely spot where the pines whispered […]”
From A Garland for Girls by Louisa May Alcott

Find out more about The Daily Flower series and floriography.

Tags: flowers, mountain laurel, Kalmia latifolia, calico bush, lambkill, clamoun, spoonwood, floriography

Laurestine – The Daily Flower for 15 November

Let me introduce you to the prima donna of the plant world. Dear Laurestine here is the queen of melodrama, who, on a good day, connotes ‘a token’. When she’s in one of her moods, however, she declares ‘I die if neglected’.

Viburnum Tinus

Of course, she’s a lot hardier than all that. Her birth certificate is the tell-tale sign: Viburnum Tinus, a robust Mediterranean shrub that flowers during the chills of winter (or should that be during the winter of her discontents?).   

The clusters of dainty pink flower buds that blossom into little white stars are Laurestine’s costume jewellery that detract from her leathery leaves. Well, good on her for trying to make the most of her assets. If only she’d not been quite so heavy-handed with her cheap perfume!

Good for giving to: Gaudy drama queens.

Great Laurestines in literature: James Montgomery was certainly more susceptible to her charms:

“Be thou an emblem — thus unfolding
The history of that maiden’s mind,
Whose eye, these humble lines beholding,
In them her future lot may find:
Through life’s mutations may she be
A modest evergreen like thee;
Though bless’d in youth, in age more bless’d,
Still be her latest days the best.”
From “The Laurustinus”

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Tags: flowers, Laurestine, Laurustinus,Viburnum Tinus, floriography

Yellow Lily – The Daily Flower for 14 November

There’s something good-humoured about the colour yellow. And something attractive about Canadians. Fitting, then, that the Canadian Lily, a.k.a. the Wild Yellow Lily, connotes playful beauty in floriography.

Lilium canadense by Priscilla Susan Bury (1793-1869)

A true lily and North American native, Lilium canadense produces numerous nodding blossoms that can grow up to 15 centimetres in diameter.

Good for giving to: Jolly Ottowans.

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Tags: flowers, Lilium canadense, Canada lily,  yellow lily, floriography

Cedar of Lebanon – The Daily Flower for 13 November

In the same way that there are more English-speaking people on other land-masses than there are on the Sceptred Isle, there are more Cedars of Lebanon outside the Mediterranean republic. But, in the same way the United Kingdom has embraced English as its lingua franca, those in Beirut (and a little beyond) have chosen the Cedrus libani as the emblem for their national flag.

Cedrus libani

There may only be a few of these needle-leaved evergreens in Lebanon, but they’re certainly rather remarkable, with an impressive stature of 40 metres. These trees also take their time about things. You won’t spot a flower (a reddish catkin) on any Cedar of Lebanon that hasn’t reached full adulthood in human years – and most only blossom at 30. So no showing off and fluttering of eyelashes for these trees during those dfifficult teenage years. Perhaps that’s why they were given the meaning of incorruptibility by the floriographers.

Good for giving to: Virtuous virgins (like the ones in Keats’s poem).

Great Cedars of Lebanon in literature: They’ll dream of their true loves (and some yummy delicacies, temptation damped, perhaps, when they think of the meaning of these trees):

“And still she slept an azure-lidded sleep,
In blanched linen, smooth, and lavender’d,
While he from forth the closet brought a heap
Of candied apple, quince, and plum, and gourd;
With jellies soother than the creamy curd,
And lucent syrups, tinct with cinnamon;
Manna and dates, in argosy transferr’d
From Fez; and spiced dainties, every one,
From silken Samarcand to cedar’d Lebanon.”
From “The Eve of St. Agnes” by John Keats

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Tags: flowers, Cedar of Lebanon, Cedrus libani, floriography

Birdsfoot Trefoil – The Daily Flower for 10 November

When is a lotus not a lotus? When it’s a bean. And when is a bean not a bean? When it’s a flower, of course. And when will this all start making sense? Well, just as soon as you take a look at Fabaceae family memmber Lotus corniculatus, commonly known as birdsfoot trefoil.

Birdsfoot trefoil by Vertigogenertigogen

There’s a great temptation to contemplate when a birdsfoot isnn’t a birds’ foot, or even when a birdsfoot doesn’t look like a bird’s foot, but let’s just cut to the chase. The common name of this plant doesn’t make any reference to either the leaves or the bright yellow blossoms of the perennial, but to the talon-like seed pods that the flowers develop into in later life.

So the poor plant gets a bit twisted, if not bitter, in its old age. But was that really reason enough for the Victorian floriographers to assign the flower the meaning ‘revenge’?

Good for giving to: People who like to dig their claws in.

Find out more about The Daily Flower series and floriography.

Tags: flowers, Birdsfoot trefoil, Lotus corniculatus, floriography

White Poplar – The Daily Flower for 9 November

The poplar is a tree for the masses. Its botanical epithet is derived from the Latin for the people, allegedly in reference to the tree’s numerous leaves, which, when blowing in the breeze, are said to resemble crowds.

As for Populus alba, the white poplar, its leaves are perhaps even more akin to the masses. For starters, they’re very two-dimensional (more physiologically than psychologically, but perhaps suitably metaphorically), and secondly they’re very two-sided (definitely in the metaphorical sense this time): the top surface of the leaf is a dark green, and the underside a striking white. What’s more, if you preserve the leaves in glycerine, the white stays white, but the green turns to black – a rather apt representation of the diametrical character of a mob.

Populus alba leaves

As all good capitalists know, masses equal labour, and labour equals money. Now, hold that idea, and perform a little equation with another old chestnut: time equals money. Which means leaves equal masses equal money equals time. Et voila! We arrive at the floriographic connotation for the white poplar.

Ahh, floriographic, you say. So, shouldn’t we be talking about the flowers of the white poplar? Well, if truth be told, the leaves are far more interesting that the poplar’s catkins. All that’s really worth remarking about those is that the male poplar’s are reddish and the female’s are kind of greeny-yellow. Nice enough, but the leaves are certainly more interesting!

Good for giving to: Herd followers and fans of Heiddeger or Hawking.

Great white poplars in literature: Oscar Wilde’s aptly named Bianca uses them as  a point of comparison:

“His hands Whiter than poplar leaves in windy springs, Shake with some palsy; and his stammering mouth Blurts out a foolish froth of empty words Like water from a conduit.”
From A Florentine Tragedy

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Tags: flowers, poplar, white poplar, Populus alba, floriography

Lupine – The Daily Flower for 8 November

Hound dogs and hangdogs are tight bound with heavy-heartedness, but those fine lupine creatures? How did the Victorian floriographers come to associate them with dejectedness?

The conundrum promises to unravel a little when we discover that those who composed in the language of flowers were referring not to Canis lupus, but to the lupinus genus, those upstanding members of the Fabaceae family. But again, puzzlement: the upright clusters of boldly coloured flowers (not to mention the silver-furred palmate leaves) look far from glum.

Lupinus polyphillus by Zanastardust (Rosana Prada)

What’s more, lupines (or lupins, as they’re called east of the Atlantic) have made quite an impression on popular culture – little surprise, given their Mangaesque angles, that there’s an anime character called Lupin the Third.

Good for giving to: Gentleman thieves with a glint in their eyes (oh, yes, and there’s the dejected bit, so those without a glint as well).

Great lupines in literature: Not quite howling under Jack London’s The Valley of the Moon, but perhaps stealing through the wood:

“Dropping down through the pungent pines, they passed woods-embowered cottages, quaint and rustic, of artists and writers, and went on across wind-blown rolling sandhills held to place by sturdy lupine and nodding with pale California poppies.”

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Tags: flowers, lupin, lupine, Lupinus polyphillus, floriography

Marvel of Peru – The Daily Flower for 7 November

Like most child prodigies who’ve not been celebritised by the Western world, Marvel of Peru is quite a shy little plant. Most certainly seen, but (unlike the mandrake) seldom heard, Mirabilis jalapa (the name by which this Brazilian native is introduced to its elders) is the perfect floriographic symbol for timidity.

Marvel of Peru by masatsu

The perfect symbol for timidity, if you don’t count the fact that it’s a bit of a lush come nightfall. As soon as the afternoon sets in (four o’clock, to be precise – hence the flower’s other common name), the Marvel of Peru opens its showy, sweetly scented tubular flowers to reveal a host of gaudy hues: pinks, yellows, oranges and reds.

Good for giving to: Gaudy juvenile geniuses.

Great Marvels of Peru in literature: Andrew Marvell uses the Marvel as metaphor, perhaps?:

“Another world was search’d, through oceans new,
To find the Marvel of Peru.
And yet these rarities might be allow’d,
To man, that sov'reign thing and proud;
Had he not dealt between the bark and tree,
Forbidden mixtures there to see.”
From ‘The Mower’ by Andrew Marvell.

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Tags: flowers, Marvel of Peru, Four O’clock flower, Mirabilis jalapa, floriography

Mandrake – The Daily Flower for 6 November

Always ones for a bit of understatement, the Victorian floriographers declared that the mandrake denoted ‘an uncommon thing’. An uncommon thing? Take one little look at the Mandragora officinarum and you’ll agree that it’s a little bit more than just uncommon.

Flowering plant of mandrake by Lumír Ondřej Hanuš

It’s not so much the bell-like flowers, the sort of pale purple colour that’s very easy on the eye, that are the oddities. It’s the root – which looks uncannily like a roughly hewn voodoo doll. No wonder people assumed they had magical powers (although I’ve yet to hear one screaming as it’s pulled from the earth).

Drawing of a mandrake from a 7th-century manuscript

Good for giving to: Superstitious strangers.

Great mandrakes in literature: Mr Beckett explains a mandrake myth later revisited by Anthony Hecht:

“Estragon: Wait.
Vladimir: Yes, but while waiting.
Estragon: What about hanging ourselves?
Vladimir: Hmm. It'd give us an erection.
Estragon: (highly excited) An erection!
Vladimir: With all that follows. Where it falls mandrakes grow. That's why they shriek when you pull them up. Did you not know that?
Estragon: Let's hang ourselves immediately!”
From ‘Waiting for Godot’ by Samuel Beckett

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Tags: flowers, mandrake, Mandragora officinarum, floriography

Mugwort – The Daily Flower for 3 November

Contrary to the initial suspicions of Harry Potter fans, mugworts are not hybrids of hocus-pocus-free humans and witches’ familiars. They are herbaceous perennials Artemisia vulgaris, believed by Victorian floriographers to connote happiness.

Artemisia vulgaris from Koehler's Medicinal-Plants 1887

Moreover, there are plenty of magical myths associated with the mugwort. Firstly, its botanical name suggests a close connection to Artemis, Apollo’s virginal twin sister and goddess of the moon. Add to that the fact that the racemes of little yellow or red flower heads and other parts of the plant are favoured by the spell sorority for their positive powers. Something we should all keep in the store cupboard then, if not in the decorative vase. Especially as it’s rumoured to have an unholy stench.

Good for giving to: Optimistic occultists.

Great mugworts in literature: Mythical (and stinky) even thousands of years ago:

“Now darkly lies the world in twilight's glow,
Who doth your defects and your virtue know?
Evil and good herein are reconciled;
The crowd alone hath nought but is defiled.
With stinking mugwort girt upon their waist,
They curse the others for their orchids chaste;
Ignorant thus in choice of fragrance rare,
Rich ornaments how could they fitly wear?”
From ‘Li Sao (The Lament)’ by Ch’ü Yüan (340– 278 B.C.) – translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang

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Tags: flowers, mugwort, Artemisia vulgaris, floriography

Mountain Ash – The Daily Flower for 2 November

Vegetarians, look away now. The mountain ash is the deerstalkers’ tree. Symbolising quiet (that essential quality in any huntsman), Sorbus aucuparia is a little deciduous tree best known for the edible red berries it produces – the must-have ingredient in rowan jelly, condiment of choice for game dishes.

Mountain ash flower clusters by schmatzi

Like many gun-toters, mountain ashes (or rowans, as they’re often called) aren’t all machismo, they’ve got a softer side, too: they’re members of the rose family. The flowers aren’t quite as glamorous or feminine as those traditional symbols of romance, but the little clusters of white blossoms are pretty enough in their own right.

Good for giving to: Silent riflers.

Great mountain ashes in literature: Ms Wharton uses their floriographic connotation to add to the ambience:

“Once, in the stillness, the call of a bird in a mountain ash was so like her laughter that his heart tightened and then grew large; and all these things made him see that something must be done at once.”
From Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

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Tags: flowers, mountain ash, rowan, Sorbus aucuparia, floriography

Nasturtium – The Daily Flower for 1 November

What defines patriotism these days? Is it a case of believing in your country even if you’re having your nose pulled by your leaders? If it is, then the nasturtium was a most apt choice as the symbol of patriotism in floriography.

Nasturtium by cobalt123

How so, you ask? Well, the name for these fiery-petalled flowers from the Tropaeolum genus translates roughly as ‘nose twister’ – most likely in reference to their pungent juice, an attribute that makes them a great salad ingredient.

Good for giving to: Nationalists.

Great nasturtiums in literature: Perhaps more like politicians than we give them credit for:

“The nasturtiums are to be of every sort and shade, and are to climb and creep and grow in bushes, and show their lovely flowers and leaves to the best advantage.”
From Elizabeth and her German Garden by Elizabeth Von Arnim

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Tags: flowers, Nasturtium, floriography