Plant names are beautiful creations: lyrical, whimsical, descriptive or just plain odd. My own personal favourite remains "Welcome home husband though never so drunk" (Sedum acre) but there are many others which are more child friendly and occasionally I try to share these with the kids. For example, a few days ago, I had the following exchange with my six-year-old.
"Look Oscar! Aren't these clematis seedheads lovely?" I mused in my I-could-so-home-school-my-kids-if-I-really-wanted to voice. "That's why they call this plant 'Old Man's Beard'."
He gave me a sidelong glance that said "don't try and educate me woman - it's the bloody weekend" before nonchalantly saying. "They don't look like beards; they look like jellyfish".
He has a point.
Your verdict?
I love his thinking. Adore how children constantly provide us with different ways of thinking about/seeing things. And for what it's worth, I think it looks like a jellyfish too. xx
Posted by: Salisburydowns | October 20, 2011 at 05:40 AM
The kid's right.
Posted by: Thursday | October 20, 2011 at 08:03 AM
And fuchsias are ballerinas.
Posted by: Esther Montgomery | October 20, 2011 at 08:33 AM
Thursday/Salisburydowns - I will let him know he has supporters.
Esther - Very true (but I still won't have them in the garden!)
Posted by: Dawn | October 21, 2011 at 09:41 AM
Definitely more jellyfish than beards.
Posted by: Metropolitan Mum | October 22, 2011 at 09:28 AM
My vote is with the jelly fish
Posted by: rhiannon | October 23, 2011 at 10:52 PM
MM and Rhiannon - there is no denying it, the boy has got a good line in plant-based similies.
Posted by: Dawn | October 26, 2011 at 07:56 PM