Thinking Citizen Blog — The Iris and the Fleur-de-Lis — a Little History, a Little Botany, a Little Van Gogh

Thinking Citizen Blog — Wednesday is Climate Change, the Environment, and Sustainability Day

Today’s Topic: The Iris and the Fleur-de-Lis — a Little History, a Little Botany, a Little Van Gogh

Two weeks ago, the tulip. Last week the crocus and the lily. Today, the iris and the “fleur-de-lis.” If environmental awareness means anything it is appreciation for the beauty and fragility of the natural world. And there is nothing more beautiful and fragile than a flower. Among flowers, the iris is one of the more ephemeral and commensurately, among the most highly valued. Etymologically, the iris comes from the Greek Goddess of the rainbow because of the flower’s many colors. The iris became the national flower of France because of Louis VII’s fondness for it, which resulted in the flower being called the “fleur de Louis.” But over time this became corrupted into the “fleur-de-lis” meaning “the lily flower.” Confusion on this score persists. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate., elucidate.

THE PARTS OF THE IRIS: the “fall,” the “beard,” the “claw”

1. The calyx (the outermost of the four concentric rings or “whorls” of a flower) is composed (as with a tulip) not of green leaves (as is the norm in flowers) but with three sepals which are to the layman indistinguishable from the petals.

2. In the iris, the sepals droop, the petals are erect. The upright petals are referred to as “standards.”

3. In an iris, the technical term for the drooping sepals is “falls,” which “expand from their narrow base (the “claw” or “haft”), into a broader expanded portion (“limb” or “blade”) and can be adorned with veining, lines or dots.” The complexity of botanical terminology is mind-boggling.

NB: “In the centre of the blade, some of the rhizomatous irises have a “beard” (a tuft of short upright extensions growing in its midline),which are the plant’s filaments (that is their pollen-producing sex organs).” The bewildering terminology reminds me of the infinite variety of terms for flocks of birds depending on the species — like a parliament of owls or a chorus of grouse or an asylum of loons.

THE FLEUR-DE-LIS — is the national flower of France a lily or an iris?

1. The fleur-de-lis is in general thought to be a stylized version of one particular kind of iris — the iris pseudacorus or iris fiorentina. There are actually 280 species of iris.

2. Before being a symbol of French royalty, the fleur-de-lis was a religious symbol of the trinity.

3. And ever since the opening line of Julius Caesar’s “Gallic Wars,” the French have been obsessed with the number three. That sentence reads: “Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres” (Gaul is a whole divided into three parts.”

NB: The fleur-de-lis, like the fig leaf, is widely considered to be a phallic symbol. This is not much of a stretch.

VINCENT VAN GOGH’S “IRISES” (1889)

1. “Irises” was painted in 1889, just before his death in 1890, during his stay at the St. Paul-de-Mausole in St Remy-de-Provence.

2. “He called painting “the lightning conductor for my illness” because he felt that he could keep himself from going insane by continuing to paint.”

3. “In 1987, it became the most expensive painting ever sold, setting a record which stood for two and a half years.” In inflation-adjusted dollars, the painting is the 10th highest priced painting ever sold.

NB: “The painting was probably influenced by Japanese ukiyo-e wood blockprints like many of his works and those by other artists of the time.” “Ukiyo-e” is usually translated “pictures of the floating world.” “Floating” in the sense of ephemeral. The style flourished in Japan from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Subjects included “female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_(plant)

The myth of France’s national flower: Lily or iris?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irises_(painting)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_paintings

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleur-de-lis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentarii_de_Bello_Gallico

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-mission-fig-leaf-richard-ortolano.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamen

https://lenichoir.org/collective-nouns/

http://artpaintingartist.org/7-most-expensive-paintings-by-vincent-van-gogh/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukiyo-e

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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.