Re: Request for Insights: Terminology

 

Viola calaminaria may be named for the geographic area where it is found:

[from a photo sharing site with photos of this violet]: 
"Today I have attended a field trip to La Calamine (BE), a former mine area turned into a natural reserve famous for its special flora. The area is heavily polluted by heavy metals such as Zinc, Lead and Cadmium. The special landscape creates a beautiful contrast with the green vegetation of the surroundings. The workshop organized by the Phytotechnologies Society has enlightened the presence of Metallophytes, plant species able to grow in soil with hight concentrations of heavy metals."

So Iris 'Calaminaria' may have been given a Latinized Belgium place name. 

Kathleen 


On Dec 5, 2012, at 8:24 PM, C*@aol.com wrote:

 

How interesting, Sean; thank you. I was working with a *different* Greek root, the one for "beauty."
 
I take it this is not a term one runs into twice a week in the botanical sciences...and yet, there is the little rare Belgian Viola.
 
Cordially,
 
AMW
-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Zera <z*@umich.edu>
To: iris-species <i*@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wed, Dec 5, 2012 10:59 pm
Subject: Re: [iris-species] Request for Insights: Terminology

 
A different source suggests that the botanical Latin calamina is from Greek kalamos, a reed or reed stem (the same root as Acorus calamus). The medieval Latin calamina (the lotion) is from the Latin cadmia, the "Cadmean earth" it's made from. So, maybe it's "reed-like."

Sean Z



On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 9:47 PM, <C*@aol.com> wrote:
 

Greetings.
 
Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to tap the collective scientific knowledge base, please, with regard to a name which emerged in relation to a nineteenth century American catalog list of bearded irises. It does not appear in the 1939 AIS Check List.
 
The plant is/was Iris 'Calaminaria,' and it was offered with a collection of plants bearing names associated preponderantly with Lémon, and mid-century Van Houtte. The catalog indicates that the source of the collection was "Belgium," which almost certainly also means Van Houtte, in Ghent.   
 
What can you tell me about the word "calaminaria," please?
 
I've done some Googling and am finding it used as a specific epithet for a Viola species, a rare one, described as a "metallophyte," which is native to a very restricted area of Belgium. I'm also seeing the word used to describe certain grasslands environments, here again involving what I understand to be heavily metallic soils. The word suggests "calamine" like the lotion, which is zinc. The only zinc colored bearded iris I know is 'Béotie,' albeit it is a humdinger. I did tryto work with the Greek root, but did not get anywhere.
 
Is there a defined meaning in botanical science or a related field for this sort of terminology?
 
Thanks so much..
 
Cordially,
 
AMW
 
  



Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index