Today a flower that is not so rare as yesterday’s – quite the opposite, in fact.
It’s ‘common’ name is the Nasturtium and the Latin one, Tropaeolum majus. The Latin name has a most unlikely origin.
Tropaeolum majus was named by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming organisms. He is known as the “father of modern taxonomy”.
He chose the genus name because the plant reminded him of an ancient custom: After victory in battle, the Romans erected a trophy pole (or tropaeum, from the Greek tropaion, source of English “trophy”) on which the vanquished foe’s armour and weapons were hung. The plant’s round leaves reminded Linnaeus of shields, and its flowers, which are on long, ‘pole like’ stems, of blood-stained helmets!
(Click on the pic to open in a new window and click again to see full size detail) 🙂
link to:
Cee’s Flower of the Day – September 22, 2018 – Dahlia
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BLob's Blog 
Sempre fiori bellissimi 🙂
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Grazie mille 🙂
I try to share the Joy i get from seeing these in my garden to all who can appreciate their beauty.
I am very glad one of those is you! 😉
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HAPPY SUNDAY ❤
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This was the first flower I ever planted, in a bed by my back door in college.
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So easy to keep (or is that hard to kill??) 😉
Both beauty and utility in the one hardy plant.
My trouble is the snails like them as much if not more than i do!
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Exactly! And if you aren’t fussy about your salads, you can even eat them.
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The snails? Or the Nasturtiums? 🙂
Only joking! – have you ever tried pickling the seeds? You can use them like capers to add a little spice to almost anything.
Apparently they are a member of the mustard family of plants. 🙂
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Ha. I’d take the nasturtiums over the snails. I don’t have any nasturtiums now but if I chance upon some, I’ll purloin a few seeds and check out your culinary advice. I love learning things like this through blogs!!
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I absolutely love the history bits you give us. Who would ever have thought the common, easily grown nasturtium has this rather bloody historical association to its Latin name?? Well, better to hang the armor on poles than their heads, I suppose, but maybe they did that too? By the way, I am afraid to put these prolific flowers into my salads because there may be invisible snail droppings on them.
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Thanks Carol! 🙂
There was a certain barbarism back in the day (who am i kidding, stuff like that still goes on today) so maybe they did but i suspect the heads was more of a hoardes thing than the ‘civilised’ Romans. 🙂
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[…] mentioned in previous FOTD posts (here and here)about the meaning of the name Nasturtium and that it is also edible, but there is another twist to […]
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