Naming Herons. Erodium cicutarium, Redstem Filaree, Océ-weerd, Venlo, The Netherlands
Well, let's be a bit difficult tonight... Just joking, of course, but still...
So why did I catch-word this photo: Naming Herons? and why give as an English name 'Redstem Filaree' to our Erodium cicutarium instead of 'Common Storksbill'?
The answer to these questions goes back to the late eighteenth century just before the Reign of Terror in France. One of the most able botanists of the time - according to the English The Monthly Review of 1790 - was caustic and parsimonious Frenchman Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle (1746-1800). His great book on the confusing Linnaean genus of Geranium was just coming off the press. In it he divided the genus into three genera: Erodium, Pelargonium and Geranium. They are to be distinguished by the number of their stamens: Erodium with 5, Pelargonium with 7, Geranium with 10. And their seed styles can be characterised by the shapes of bird-bills: Pelargonium as the name suggests by that of the Stork, Geranium by the Crane, and Erodium by that of the Heron.
So you can imagine I balk a bit at calling Redstem Filaree 'Common Stork's-bill' (as it is often designated in English). And I do rather like the word 'Filaree' (derived ultimately through the Spanish from the Arabic for 'needle' as a tribute to those seeds).
Anyway, I saw this rather early, highly colorful bloom in the bright Sunlit Océ-weerd this morning.
PS Don't take my 'being difficult' amiss, please! I wouldn't want to end up in a Parisian gutter - or for that matter in any gutter - like L'Héritier, who was beaten to death one Summer night apparently by his own son.
Naming Herons. Erodium cicutarium, Redstem Filaree, Océ-weerd, Venlo, The Netherlands
Well, let's be a bit difficult tonight... Just joking, of course, but still...
So why did I catch-word this photo: Naming Herons? and why give as an English name 'Redstem Filaree' to our Erodium cicutarium instead of 'Common Storksbill'?
The answer to these questions goes back to the late eighteenth century just before the Reign of Terror in France. One of the most able botanists of the time - according to the English The Monthly Review of 1790 - was caustic and parsimonious Frenchman Charles Louis L'Héritier de Brutelle (1746-1800). His great book on the confusing Linnaean genus of Geranium was just coming off the press. In it he divided the genus into three genera: Erodium, Pelargonium and Geranium. They are to be distinguished by the number of their stamens: Erodium with 5, Pelargonium with 7, Geranium with 10. And their seed styles can be characterised by the shapes of bird-bills: Pelargonium as the name suggests by that of the Stork, Geranium by the Crane, and Erodium by that of the Heron.
So you can imagine I balk a bit at calling Redstem Filaree 'Common Stork's-bill' (as it is often designated in English). And I do rather like the word 'Filaree' (derived ultimately through the Spanish from the Arabic for 'needle' as a tribute to those seeds).
Anyway, I saw this rather early, highly colorful bloom in the bright Sunlit Océ-weerd this morning.
PS Don't take my 'being difficult' amiss, please! I wouldn't want to end up in a Parisian gutter - or for that matter in any gutter - like L'Héritier, who was beaten to death one Summer night apparently by his own son.