Native bitterroot named for Meriwether Lewis
As I was admiring a clump of our native yellow bells in my rock garden recently, I wondered how they came by their name. The common name is obvious, since the flowers are yellow and bell-shaped. But what does the botanical name Fritillaria pudica mean?
According to Allen J. Comb’s Dictionary of Plant Names, pudica is Latin for modest, and the yellow bells are small and dainty, no more than 5 or 6 inches tall. Fritillaria comes from the Latin word for dice-box, and refers to the checkered flowers on many varieties.
Scientific plant names come mainly from Latin or Greek or from personal names. Everything that is not Latin is treated as if it were. Thus our native bitterroot, collected by Capt. Meriwether Lewis in the early 1800s, was named after him and given the botanical name of Lewisia rediviva. Lewis’ name is Latinized, and rediviva means brought back to life, because the original herbarium specimen continued to grow after Lewis had pressed and packaged it for travel back east.
The common name of bitterrroot also has an interesting history. The expedition’s native guides ate the root, and Lewis tried it, too, since the expedition was short on food, and found it very bitter. The bitterroot in my garden should bloom in May. It also flowers profusely around the Fish Lakes exit on Interstate 90.
Lewis’ expedition partner, Capt. William Clark, has a flower named in his honor as well. Commonly called elkhorn, this lovely lavender pink annual has four three-lobed petals that look a bit like the horns of an elk. The proper botanical name is Clarkia pulchella, to honor Clark and indicate that this flower is pretty.
Another native, the red columbine or Aquilegia formosa should soon be in flower. The common name suggests that the flowers look like a cluster of doves. The botanical name, Aquilegia, was thought to refer to eagle claws, until more recent studies concluded that it translates more accurately as water carrier, and refers to the long spurs filled with nectar that hummingbirds love. Formosa means beautiful in Latin, not that the plant comes from Taiwan.
This week in the garden
•When you can squeeze a handful of soil into a ball that holds its shape but breaks apart easily when pressed, it’s time to cultivate garden beds and prepare them for seeding greens, carrots and beets.
•Plant potatoes and onion sets; transplant cabbage, brussels sprouts, broccoli and cauliflower starts.
•Weed vegetable and flower beds now to save work later. Weeds that haven’t gone to seed can be composted.
•Transplant trees and shrubs and remove protective mulch from roses.
•Plant grafted roses with the graft 2 inches below the soil. Roses need at least six hours of sunlight and well-drained soil. Try roses on their own root stock if you’ve been losing grafted ones to harsh winters.
•Remember that we’re not frost-free until around the middle of May. Tender annuals can be damaged by late freezes.