Apr 7, 2021
Thinking Citizen Blog — Crocuses and Lilies — a Bit of History and Botany
Thinking Citizen Blog — Wednesday is Climate Change, the Environment, and Sustainability Day
Today’s Topic: Crocuses and Lilies — a bit of history and botany
Last time, the flashy tulip. Today, the humble crocus. Actually, when Ogier Ghislain de Busbecq (1522–1592) brought the first tulip to the Netherlands in 1562, he also brought with him the first crocus. Both came from Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Ogier was the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire (based in Vienna) to the Islamic equivalent — the “Sublime Porte” or simply the “Porte” as the central government of the Ottoman Empire was then called. The illegitimate son of a Flemish Lord and his mistress, Ogier was a precocious child with an intense interest in botany from an early age. He was “legitimized” later in life and would write one of the classics of European travel literature (“Turkish Letters” published in 1595) which included detailed descriptions of the life of the Ottoman court as well of local flora and fauna. He is sometimes credited with bringing both the lilac and the Angora goat to western Europe, as well as the tulip and the crocus. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
CROCUS — tubers, bulbs, and “corms” — how perennials survive dormancy
1. If you read about crocuses you will encounter the word “corm,” which is a technical term for the storage organ at the base of the plant that allows it to survive the winter and reproduce asexually. It is for general purposes synonymous with “tuber” or “bulb.”
2. But technically corms differ from bulbs.
3. “Corms are sometimes confused with true bulbs; they are often similar in appearance to bulbs externally, and thus erroneously called bulbs. Corms are stems that are internally structured with solid tissues, which distinguishes them from bulbs, which are mostly made up of layered fleshy scales that are modified leaves. As a result, a corm cut in half appears solid inside, but a true bulb cut in half reveals that it is made up of layers. Corms are structurally plant stems, with nodes and internodes with buds and produce adventitious roots.”
NB: Some crocuses bloom in the spring. Others in the fall — notably crocus sativa, whose stigmas (top of the female sex organ) are the source of the most expensive spice on earth (saffron). Crocus sativa was discussed in quantitative detail on math day a week and a half ago. Please go back and check it out if you missed it the first time.
LILIES — petals, sepals, and “whorls” of “tepals”
1. Lilies have flowers that come in “whorls” or concentric rings which each number in multiples of three. The Sego lily above has sepals and petals that are clearly distinguishable, but in a typical tulip sepals (really the leaves) look just like the petals and the umbrella term “tepals” can be either sepal or petal. Which can be quite confusing. So what look like six petals are in fact six “tepals” comprised of one “whorl” of three petals and another of three sepals.
2. The lily family has six genera and 610 species. It was first described by Michel Adanson in 1763 and formally named by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (1748–1836) in 1789. Jussieu was the first botanist to publish a natural classification of flowering plants. He was a member of a prominent family of French botanists which is the source of name of man Parisian landmarks including the Place Jussieu, the Metro stop Jussieu, the Jussieu campus of the Sorbonne University (home of the Faculty of Sciences).
3. Lilies have often been used as symbols. The cala lilly for example is worn at Easter by Irish Republicans in honor of the Easter Rebellion of 1916. See photo immediately below.
NB: For Christians the “Easter Lilly” (lilium longiform) is a symbol of the resurrected Christ. It is native to Taiwan and the Ryuku Islands of Japan. “Jesus Himself referenced the flower, saying “Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these” (Luke 12:27) Moreover, according to pious legend, “after Jesus’ death and resurrection, some of these beautiful flowers were found growing in the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus went to pray the night before His crucifixion. Legend has it that these flowers sprung up where drops of Jesus’ sweat fell as he prayed. In many Christian churches, the chancel is adorned with Easter lilies throughout the Paschal Season.” The image below is that of an “Easter Lily.”
“EASTER LILIES” — a poem by Esther Saville Allen (1837–1913)
1. “Somewhere while the Easter lilies Swing their perfumed censers white,
Softened rays of sunlight falling In lines aslant, and warm, and bright,”
2. “Shall gild the altar, nave and chancel; Rest with tender roseate ray
On the font, enwreathed with lilies For baptismal rites today.”
3. “Another pilgrim on the journey From the cradle to the tomb,
Shall receive a name and blessing While the Easter lilies bloom.”
NB: Esther Saville Allen, born in Honeoye, New York of British parents, was a public school teacher who eventually settled in Little Rock, Arkansas. There she is renowned as “probably the author of more works, both in prose and verse, than any other woman in Arkansas.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogier_Ghiselin_de_Busbecq
https://www.littleflowerhut.com.sg/flower-guide/crocus/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_(plant)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Jussieu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jussieu_(Paris_M%C3%A9tro)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_Saville_Allen
Click here for the last three years of posts arranged by theme:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to climate change or the environment. Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to climate change that the rest of us may have missed. Your favorite chart or table perhaps…
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart.
