Sunday 9 May 2010
New Broom
A glorious day again today, but a short walk because of it being too busy at weekends. Glad to see another plant in flower this morning and what a beauty. There are several Broom (Cytisus) shrubs growing around Shipley Park, most of which are the common Broom (Cytisus scoparius) and look a bit like a spineless Gorse. The bright, yellow flowers are very similar as they are both typical members of the Pea family. This morning however, we came across this variation of the shrub, with beautiful, deep orange-red colouring on the alae (or wings) of the corolla (flower).
Some of the flowers were fully open and have their stamens projecting out of the flower and waiting for a passing insect to pollinate them. Here too, you can see all four parts of the flower itself (the corolla I mentioned earlier). It consists of an upper part, the Calyx, two wings or Alae either side and the lower part, the Carina or Keel.
Perhaps the most fascinating fact about these shrubs, is that the Plantagenet Kings used it as their family emblem and took their name Plantagenet from the Latin for the species being "Planta genista".
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2 comments:
Hi there you wrote:
"...Perhaps the most fascinating fact about these shrubs, is that the Plantagenet Kings used it as their family emblem and took their name Plantagenet from the Latin for the species being "Planta genista
..."
The Plantsgenets did not take their name from Latin... but from the Franco-Roman (old French) language.
The Latin 'Linaean' name Planta Genista is from a much later date (based on the same origins no doubt); Asa result of the works of Lineaus ordering the world of plants.
Simon
Thank you for that Simon. I was well aware of Linneaus' contribution (as well as his dates) and used the word 'Latin' to cover so-called 'Scientific Latin' as well as the Classical Latin upon which the Franco-Roman language is based. Nice to know someone is taking an interest in the blog.
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