Red Campion and a Calling Cuckoo. Silene dioica, Hoornseplas, Groningen, The Netherlands
't Was a bright late morning when anomalously for that particular time I heard a calling Cuckoo as my eyes fell on a gathering of Red Campions in the mottled shade at the edge of a wood near the Hoornseplas, just south of the city of Groningen. This plant in Dutch is usually called the 'Dagkoekoeksbloem' (Silene dioica or Lychnis dioica) as sometimes in English: Cuckoo-flower (which is not the same as the Cuckooflower [Cardamine pratensis]).
The great Carolus Linnaeus in the middle of the eighteenth century knew it as Lychnis dioica. Earlier, famous Flemish botanist Rembertus Dodonaeus (1517-1585) had called it Lychnis silvestris in Latin and also by two intriguing Flemish names: Jenettekens ('wee Janets") and Wilde Christusogen ('wild eyes of Christ'). Local Groningen professor of botany, Abraham Munting (1626-1683) added: Wilde Jenette (='Wild Janet'). But the French-Swiss botanist and entomologist Joseph Philippe de Clairville (1742-1830) gave our flower its scientific name 'Silene', which holds today. Possibly by that name he refers to the froth or spittle often seen early in the morning on the stems of Campions and 'True' Cuckooflowers. Greek Silenos - father of Bacchus - was a notorius drunk and often apparently foamed at the mouth.
In fact, that froth is the product of the Spittlebug (Philaenus spumarius); how Clairville would have liked this! In pre-modern times this foam was thought to be produced by the Cuckoo; hence it was called 'cuckoospit' (in Dutch: koekoekspuug). That close association with the bird, gave the flower its common name in Dutch.
The English 'Campion' is a version - perhaps by way of the French - of the Latin 'Flos campi', Flower of the field, in this case in red or pink.
Red Campion and a Calling Cuckoo. Silene dioica, Hoornseplas, Groningen, The Netherlands
't Was a bright late morning when anomalously for that particular time I heard a calling Cuckoo as my eyes fell on a gathering of Red Campions in the mottled shade at the edge of a wood near the Hoornseplas, just south of the city of Groningen. This plant in Dutch is usually called the 'Dagkoekoeksbloem' (Silene dioica or Lychnis dioica) as sometimes in English: Cuckoo-flower (which is not the same as the Cuckooflower [Cardamine pratensis]).
The great Carolus Linnaeus in the middle of the eighteenth century knew it as Lychnis dioica. Earlier, famous Flemish botanist Rembertus Dodonaeus (1517-1585) had called it Lychnis silvestris in Latin and also by two intriguing Flemish names: Jenettekens ('wee Janets") and Wilde Christusogen ('wild eyes of Christ'). Local Groningen professor of botany, Abraham Munting (1626-1683) added: Wilde Jenette (='Wild Janet'). But the French-Swiss botanist and entomologist Joseph Philippe de Clairville (1742-1830) gave our flower its scientific name 'Silene', which holds today. Possibly by that name he refers to the froth or spittle often seen early in the morning on the stems of Campions and 'True' Cuckooflowers. Greek Silenos - father of Bacchus - was a notorius drunk and often apparently foamed at the mouth.
In fact, that froth is the product of the Spittlebug (Philaenus spumarius); how Clairville would have liked this! In pre-modern times this foam was thought to be produced by the Cuckoo; hence it was called 'cuckoospit' (in Dutch: koekoekspuug). That close association with the bird, gave the flower its common name in Dutch.
The English 'Campion' is a version - perhaps by way of the French - of the Latin 'Flos campi', Flower of the field, in this case in red or pink.