'Can't Take my Eyes off of You'. Bog Asphodel or Ilagraes, Narthecium ossifragum, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Great Carolus Linnaues (1707-1778) was born in Stenbrohult, Småland, Sweden. In his early publication, the Flora Lapponica (1737), on Lapp Plants, he discusses what he still calls Anthericum - later (1762) it was renamed Narthecium by William Hudson (1734-1793).
Linnaeus in the description of our plant growing in his native land of Stenbrohult waxes prolixly eloquent. He praises its great beauty, and - I translate freely from the Latin - writes that he can't take his eyes off of it. He goes on to say that it's called 'Ilagraes' in the local Swedish, and that it's believed to do great harm to sheep. They gorge themselves on it and get fat; but the next year they die of a nasty worm infection. Linnaeus is sceptical although he says there must be some other explanation than eating Anthericum. He doesn't solve the riddle.
The Latin specific - 'ossifragum' - means 'bone-breaking'. There are several theories about the origin of that designation. One is that sheep in bogs easily break their legs; another that their legs are weakened by a lack of calcium in the fens in which Narthecium grows... I've tried to find the first use of 'ossifragum' in this context in the hope there might be a further explication. Haven't found one. That would have been 'too good to be true'...
'Can't Take my Eyes off of You'. Bog Asphodel or Ilagraes, Narthecium ossifragum, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Great Carolus Linnaues (1707-1778) was born in Stenbrohult, Småland, Sweden. In his early publication, the Flora Lapponica (1737), on Lapp Plants, he discusses what he still calls Anthericum - later (1762) it was renamed Narthecium by William Hudson (1734-1793).
Linnaeus in the description of our plant growing in his native land of Stenbrohult waxes prolixly eloquent. He praises its great beauty, and - I translate freely from the Latin - writes that he can't take his eyes off of it. He goes on to say that it's called 'Ilagraes' in the local Swedish, and that it's believed to do great harm to sheep. They gorge themselves on it and get fat; but the next year they die of a nasty worm infection. Linnaeus is sceptical although he says there must be some other explanation than eating Anthericum. He doesn't solve the riddle.
The Latin specific - 'ossifragum' - means 'bone-breaking'. There are several theories about the origin of that designation. One is that sheep in bogs easily break their legs; another that their legs are weakened by a lack of calcium in the fens in which Narthecium grows... I've tried to find the first use of 'ossifragum' in this context in the hope there might be a further explication. Haven't found one. That would have been 'too good to be true'...