I have a wonderful nature book called 'Collins Complete British Wildlife Photoguide'. I look at it all the time, and not just when I want to identify a bird or butterfly or flower I've found outside. The girls love the book too. Some of the names are spectacular! They sound like names in a Dickens book, or a sinister medical condition, or some kind of medieval insult. They make me smile. This is a list of my favourite wildflower names.
bastard balm
bloody cranesbill
blue fleabane
bog asphodel
butterbur
bog pimpernel
cloudberry
columbine
common cleavers
common fumitory
creeping cinquefoil
creeping jenny
devil's-bit scabious
enchanter's nightshade
eyebright
fairy flax
fat hen
feverfew
good king henry
hairy tare
hogweed
hounds tongue
ivy leaved toadflax
kidney vetch
lady's bedstraw
lady's mantle
lords-and-ladies
lousewort
maiden pink
melancholy thistle
navelwort
pignut
sea rocket
selfheal
shepherd's purse
slender hare's-ear
smooth cat's-ear
snakeshead fritilary
sneezewort
starry saxifrage
sticky mouse-ear
stinking hellebore
sun spurge
thrift
tormentil
viper's bugloss
Love this list!!! One of my favourite new words is Sonchus. It's from ancient greek and means hollow referring to the stem of a genus of plants including Sow-thistle, but I think it's a great sounding word (based on my assumption it is pronounced as Sonkus).
ReplyDeleteThanks Mark! I love your weeds too! I was just struck by how imaginative the flower names are. I will have to go through the other sections of that book to see what gems I can find :D
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