A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Plant names

I thought this may or may not be a good idea, we can share stories of plant names that we come along. Taking Latin this year, most plant names can be traced to latin roots and they mean some pretty neat things. Some names (like Iris and Narcissus) are mythological beings. Anyone care to share some stories they know of? (these stories came from my latin teacher; i just rephrase them)

Narcissus (Daffodils)
Narcissus and Echo

Once there was a young man who was very handsome. He left a trail of broken hearts, from both gender as he was so in love with his own reflection he ignored everyone else's love. He spent most of his time looking at his own reflection in a pool of water. There was one nymph who was especially fond of him, and her name was Echo. Every time, Narcissus would reject her until she started to wither away without a bodily form to just a voice (hence we know echos as voices without bodies) The gods, to punish Narcissus, turned him into a flower. Some daffodils today and some plants in the Narcissus family have drooping blooms (some say its Narcissus shamed) and they can be grown in water (paperwhites) and some are found wild near water.

Iris

Another mythological being, she was a rainbow. She was always portrayed as the one to free humans from the earth and from suffering. The last thing or person you see was probably her. My teacher reckons the flower may be associated with death. And in siberia (I don't know how I know, I read about it somewhere before) iris (Siberian iris) grow so abundantly in cemetaries that they've now been known as funeral flowers there. Back in the ancient roman world, iris were also funeral flowers along with roses, lilies, and violets.

That's so neat about Iris being a rainbow.

I never thought of a daffodil a a man. The flower just seems girly to me.

bill, kenny thank you for sharing 2 sides of plant names.

and kenny, i hadn't thought of the "proper" name for daffodils in a long time, but they did remind me of something i was trying to bring to mind!

Thanks Bill! The charts are really helpful...especially when I'm buying plant without pictures!

Butterflyweed
asclepsis tuberosa

Come from the name Asclepious, god of healing and medicine, the plant is used medicinally especially by the natives

Crocosmia lucifer

lucifer actually mean bringer of light, but is now associated with the devil. lucifer was an angel in heaven but his envy for power landed him being cast into hell. with its association with hell, the flower is coincidently red (the fires of hell?)

Columbine
aqualigea spp. (spelling)

columbine comes from th latin word dove, columba (or columbam)probably describing its graceful swooping of the blooms

Thanks guys, this is really some GREAT information.

and to think... I used to speak Latin reasonably fluently Never get old my young friend....

Great topic Kennyso, I really enjoyed it. I don't know any stories to add to what you have but if I hear of any I'll add them here.

I'm glad you're taking Latin Kenny. I tend to just skim over information not paying attention to the fine print. Columbines are sort of like doves aren't they?

Bill, what other languages did you end up taking? When I was in school we took Latin as a prerequisite to French, Spanish or German. It was supposed to make learning them easier. I'm not so sure about that.

I have one more year left at this school, and i'm starting with beginner latin so if i do graduate next year and move off, i will have missed the third and final year. our latin course is somewhat more handons on and incorporated into activities instead of sitting and learning grammar, but the vocab really good! the school i went to have japanese, spanish and french. the school here has greek and latin and french. i wanted to take greek but took design tech instead. sheri, latin does sorta make things easier but i was told spanish may be more practical nowadays.

wow Bill I'm soo surprised, i never thought i'd meet anyone who was/is good at latin. my parents just shrug it off; they say its a dead langauge and theres no point of learning it, oh well...

daylily
Hemeocallis Spp.

Hemero means day and callis probably comes from the greek word for beauty (kallos...calla is also from this word) so the name literally beautiful for the day...which is very appropiate. I think daylilies blooms last for only one day? someone correct me if im wrong

Lavender
Lavendula Spp.

lavarae (sp) is the verb to wash. in roman times the wealthy would pour rose petals and also lavender buds into their bath water and in th public baths to keep the water smelling fresh

Hens and chicks
Semprevivum

I think this comes from semper meaning always, probably describes the perennial habit? or perhaps how it is always sending out little plantlets to form nice big colonies so they never die out

speaking of semper: you might have heard of this, for those of you who haven't can anyone figure this out? ubi means where. now figure out what sub means and you'll figure out this phrase.

semper ubi sub ubi

I think it's supposed to be Always wear underwear, but ubi really means "where" as you said, but in this phrase it's read wear for some reason.

Back to sempervivum. Semper meaning 'always' and isn't vivum 'living'?

Here's one ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Aster~ The Magic Star of September *****


This little star of the flower world (their name literally means star in Latin) is the herb of Venus, as perfume from burning their leaves were believed to have magical powers of warding off evil serpents in the ancient times.

Like their starry origin, Asters come in a variety of colours such as blue, white and purple, just like the glow of starlight. The most common flower used by florists in China, one of the popular myths about Aster is that one can hear the slightest whisper if you listen to them closely enough.

According to legends, Asters grew from the tears of the goddess Virgo (also known as Asterea). It is believed that she was saddened by Jupiter's decision to flood the entire race during the Iron Age that she requested to be turned into a star, and when she sees the muddy aftermath, her tears fell as stardust and became delightful Asters.

I think you're correct about that. We were talking about hens and chicks in some other post a few days ago. Are they always living?

Asters do look like stars now that I think of it. And I think it's interesting that there is a correlation about the "flood".

helenium

heleniums are supposed to have come from the tears of Helen of Troy