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Once upon a time, in St. Leonard's Forest in Sussex, there dwelt a fearsome dragon who made regular forays into the neighbouring countryside to capture maidens and lay waste generally. However, he did not have things entirely his own way for the Sussex people had a champion in St. Leonard, a blacksmith who also lived in the forest. For years the district rang with howls and the clash of steel as the two fought up and down the glades, but at last the beast was overcome and the saint emerged victorious. His reward, by divine intervention, was that henceforward no adder would bite in the forest, no nightingale would sing (because the bird had disturbed his slumbers with its nightly twittering), and wherever the good man's blood had been spilled lilies of the valley would grow. And if you don't believe me, just take a walk around St. Leonard's Forest. You might be surprised to see all the lilies of the valley which grow there. This is just one of the many stories about plants. Some are just legends, some have a basis of truth, and some are just plain factual but which come under the category of 'Did you know...' Like this one about plums. Most plums are probably descended from a cross between the sloe, which is the fruit of the blackthorn, and the myrobalan or cherry plum, both now largely relegated to hedgerows. Plums were well known to the ancient Egyptians, as were prunes, some of which were found as provisions for the afterlife in tombs at Thebes. On a less spiritual plane, they were valued by the Romans for their laxative qualities. Roman poets also praised the glory of 'the great crowd of plums' in the orchards about the City. Of the dessert plums popular in Britain, the greengage has one of the longest pedigrees. Sir William Gage popularised it in about 1725 when he brought it from France, where it was appropriately named 'Reine Claude', after the 'good and sweet' queen of Francis I. The excellent 'Coe's Golden Drop' has been grown in England since the late 18th century but the 'Victoria' is of more recent date. It seems to have gained its name about the time of the Queen's coronation in 1837. And here is a real 'Did you know...' Despite their names, African marigolds are not African, and French marigolds are not French. Both come from Mexico. They were brought from there to Spain by the conquistadors and the variety that we now call African was first known to southern Europeans as 'rose of the Indies'. In 1535, Emperor Charles V defeated the Moors in Tunis, where the plant happened to have naturalised and it was subsequently renamed 'ros africanus' or African rose. By the time it reached northern Europe, its Mexican origins had largely been forgotten and it was assumed, because of its name, that it was African. The 'French' variety was so named because, according to tradition, it was introduced to the British Isles by Huguenot refugees who came over from France in 1572 after the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. And now for some more useless information, this time about dianthus. Dianthus have been valued since classical times for both their scent and their beauty. Such high regard over so long a period has given rise to a great variety of common names which sometimes meant one species and sometimes another. Coronation (Carnation), gillyflower and pink, which got its name from a Dutch word for Whitsun, are dianthus. So are clove pinks and sops-in-wine, a name which was perhaps derived from the practice of drinking vinegar in which pinks had been steeped as a preventative of plague. Sweet William, also a dianthus, became associated with William, Duke of Cumberland, after his victory at Culloden in 1746. The defeated Jacobites retaliated by christening the malodorous common ragwort 'Stinking Billy'. Some plants get their names from the way they look. Two examples of this are the hydrangea and the gladiolus. The hydrangea's name comes from the Greek hydor meaning water, and angeion meaning vessel, because of the resemblance of the seed pods to drinking cups. There are something like 23 known species which include lacecap hydrangeas that grow to 9m (30ft), and the oak-leaf type, whose foliage turns wine-red in autumn. Because the flowers have beauty but no scent, they represented coldness or boastfulness in the Victorian flower language. Nevertheless, they are long-lasting, making them much in demand as floral decorations. The gladiolus, a flower which seems to have lost the popularity it had in the 1960's and 1970's, gets its name from the similarity of its leaves to the gladius, the sword of the Romans and weapon of the gladiator. However, southern Europeans were familiar only with the wild species that is native to Mediterranean countries: the larger, showier species originated in South Africa. These were first brought to northern Europe more than 250 years ago and were hybridised by the British and Belgians, giving rise to many of the brilliant, large-flowered, modern varieties that have been popular for so long. For information, the smaller more natural looking varieties are easier to grow. But let us leave flowers and see what stories are told about other types of plant. Coriander is believed to be native to the eastern Mediterranean region but it is valued by many people. This herb has long been considered by the Chinese to confer longevity. Its medicinal properties were also held in high regard by the Greek physician Hippocrates, who lived around 460-377 BC. It was used in cooking, too. A 13th. century Arab gourmet, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn al-Karim al-Katib al-Baghdadi (a name which must mean something but I know not what), included both the seeds (finely ground) and the green leaves in the ingredients of his recipe for 'mokhfiyo', a type of kebab. Coriander was just one of those things brought to Britain by the Romans. The seeds were used to flavour alcoholic drinks, to disguise the taste of unpleasant medicines and to make pink and white comfits (sugar-coated sweets). The Roman aristocrats also enjoyed the artichokes of their day, the ancestors of the modern globe artichokes, as did the ancient Greeks. The Romans attributed several special powers to the vegetable, believing that it promoted hair growth in those suffering from baldness and that it could increase one's capacity for alcohol. It was considered a potent aphrodisiac, a belief which continued to be held throughout Europe until the 17th century. It was also widely held that it was a foolproof means of ensuring the birth of a baby boy. Despite arousing the worst feelings of gardeners, nettles have a long and respectable history and are plants that no respectable gardener should be without, being not only a very useful plant but also having royal patronage. Mary Queen of Scots vowed that sheets woven from nettle fibres were the smoothest she had ever slept in, and fishing nets and ropes were also spun out of the fibres. A green dye was obtained from the leaves, which were also brewed to make tea and beer, and medicinal uses of the plant were legion. Early recognition of the nettle's iron content led to it being prescribed for blood disorders, and nettle ale was said to be good for jaundice. Only, however, if the leaves were picked before May Day. After that, the Devil required them as raw material for his shirts. Rheumatism is reputedly relieved if the affected part is beaten with bunches of nettles: they would certainly make an effective counter-irritant. And so it goes on. It seems every plant, be it shrub, flower, vegetable, herb or weed has a story attached to it. Some true. Some fanciful. But all interesting. Happy gardening. Bill Hutchings |
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page last updated 1 DECEMBER 2000 |
