Archangel in the Shade. Lamium orvala, Balm-Leaved Dead-Nettle, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
No! Don't even begin to ask why a name for Lamium in English is Archangel. If someone knows, do let me in on the secret.
Here's a wonderful Balm-Leaved Dead-Nettle called in Latin: Lamium orvala.
'Lamium' is apparently connected to the Latin (in the great naturalist Pliny's work) for gullet. But 'orvala' is - if I'm to believe the various lexica which I've perused - rather more mysterious. It's said to be of unknown origin. But I have a theory...
I wouldn't be surprised if that name has to do with the plant's provenance. It's said to hail originally from Central and Eastern Europe. Now, in eastern Croatia there's a very fertile valley that today goes by the name of Požeška kotlina. The ancient Romans knew it as Vallis Aurea or (Au)rea (Vall)is. Well, you get my drift; perhaps in early Europe people still realised whence this particular Gulletplant... and by ear gave it the specific name by which science knows it still today.
Archangel in the Shade. Lamium orvala, Balm-Leaved Dead-Nettle, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
No! Don't even begin to ask why a name for Lamium in English is Archangel. If someone knows, do let me in on the secret.
Here's a wonderful Balm-Leaved Dead-Nettle called in Latin: Lamium orvala.
'Lamium' is apparently connected to the Latin (in the great naturalist Pliny's work) for gullet. But 'orvala' is - if I'm to believe the various lexica which I've perused - rather more mysterious. It's said to be of unknown origin. But I have a theory...
I wouldn't be surprised if that name has to do with the plant's provenance. It's said to hail originally from Central and Eastern Europe. Now, in eastern Croatia there's a very fertile valley that today goes by the name of Požeška kotlina. The ancient Romans knew it as Vallis Aurea or (Au)rea (Vall)is. Well, you get my drift; perhaps in early Europe people still realised whence this particular Gulletplant... and by ear gave it the specific name by which science knows it still today.