English Language and Gardening: For the Real Connoisseurs of Both -- Part II

(a paper presented at a teachers' conference in 2014; pictures were taken from the Web)

And now to the  plant names, finally. Do you happen to know glague? Glague rhymes with plague, and it really is a garden plague, let me tell you! The name speaks for itself. 

Well, in ancient times, when plants were already in abundance but not yet thoroughly classified by Carl von Linnea, numerous romantic vernacular plant names emerged. Of course, we all know these two:

 *forget-me-nots
*lily-of-the-valley

Why such quaint names? Well, coincidentally, the newspaper The St. Petersburg Times of February 6, 1938 (Tampa, FL) published a little research article of a Mary Gilchrist scrutinizing the common vernacular or English names of plants. She says: Who were the namers? They were those close to nature – farmers, shepherds, medicinal herb gatherers, fishermen, etc. Thus the plant names refer to: 1) habitat, 2) season, 3) color (e.g. blue-bell), 4) saints, villains, heroes (e.g. St. John’s wort), 5) domestic animals (e.g. rabbit-foot, cow-lily). Personally, I would add a sixth one – referring to a certain relative/family member because in every culture there’s a special love for a mother-in-law, therefore the common plant names:

# mother-in-law’s cushion

# mother-in-law’s tongue

And maybe even the seventh reference – some unknown (or forgotten) people’s names. People often have a flower name: Lily, Rose, Pansy (анютины глазки), Daisy, Iris, Holly (падуб), Heather (вереск), etc. But many plants also have people’s names and even nationality:

Wandering Jew
Adam’s needle (юкка)

Black-eyed Susan (vine, rudbeckia)

Busy Lizzie (бальзамин Impatience)

Creeping Jenny (лизимахия)

Herb Robert (wild герань)

Jack-in-the-pulpit (аризема)

Jenny Green Teeth (ряска)

Johnny-jump-up

Queen-Anne’s-lace

Stinking Christopher (норичник шишковатый)

Sweet William (турецкая гвоздика)

These old, long-phrased, hyphenated plant names are still in use. Some plants happen to have identical folk names. It’s not surprising because some species have dozens names to themselves. For example, Wild Pansy is also called: Life-in-Idleness. Love Idol. Cull Me. Cuddle Me. Call-me-to-you. Jack-jump-up-and-kiss-me. Meet-me-in-the-Entry. Kiss-her-in-the-Buttery. Three-Faces-under-a-Hood. Kit-run-in-the-Fields. Pink-of-the-Eye. Kit-run-about. Godfathers and Godmothers. Stepmother. Bird's Eye. Bull-weed. Herb Constancy. Pink-eyed-John. Bouncing Bet.

But then it gets even funnier:

butter-and-eggs (toadflax)

hens-and-chicks крассула

love-in-a-mist/devil-in-a-bush - нигелла

love-in-a-puff (valentine gift seeds)

love-lies-bleeding (amaranth)

match-me-if-you-can (tropical acalipha)

mind-your-own-business/lime-baby’s-tears (soleirolia)

morning glory

poor-man’s-weatherglass

 

wait-a-while (rattan)

wake-robin - триллиум

…and even …. kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate (persicaria)

 

And when we think that the plant name cannot possibly get any longer, we find this beauty:

welcome-home-husband-though-never-so-drunk (goldmoss sedum)

And now let’s test your knowledge of the vernacular plant names, but don’t worry – although I have found a great many of those, I’ll give you only the easy ones. Please match the first half of the plant name with the second:

bachelor’s

bleeding

blue

butter

cat

cow’s

duck

fox

gay

granny’s

hare

heart’s

horse

lark

lion’s

may

monk’s

ox

pepper

pussy

ragged

sneeze

snow

sun

toad

turkey

willow

...and... 

beard

bell

bonnet

buttons

corn

cup

drop

ease

eye

feather

flag

flax

flower

gloves

heart

hood

lip

mint

radish

robin

spur

tail

weed (3)

willow

wort

 

Answers: angel’s hair, angel’s trumpet, bleeding heart, bluebell, blue-flag, toadflax, buckeye, buttercup, Chinese lantern, cornflower, dogwood, duckweed, elderberry, heart’s ease (viola), chestnut, gay-feather, foxgloves, hazelnut, honeysuckle, horseradish, larkspur, oxlip, peppermint, saw-grass, sneezewor, snowdrop, sunflower, turkey cor, wandering Jew, willow-weed, elderberry, mayweed, cowslip, devilwood, dragonhead, ox-eye (ромашка), cow-lily (калла), pussy-willow, rabbit-foot, lion’s heart, dandelion, monkey-flower, tassel-plant (амарант), sea-lavender, lady’s smock (cuckoo flower, cardamine)

long purples (arum, buddleia), hare-bell (campanula), cattail (камыш), monk’s hood (аконит),

crow-flower (ragged robin, часики, лихнис), bachelor’s buttons (cornflower), lion’s beard (прострел), granny’s bonnet (aquilegia), cow-wheat (Иван-да-Марья), goose-foot (лебеда).