Mayflowers and some flowers, in May, Part 1

Hawthorn or Mayflower

Yesterday, I went for my first recreational stroll since being locked down. I took one hour and a little under 20 minutes. Hopefully I will not be prosecuted for this infraction. In my mitigation, this was my only journey that was not shopping or going to work for the last six weeks. I put the photos of horse chestnut flowers in a post yesterday. Some of the others I am including here and the rest in another post that I will hopefully complete in a few days.




Herons

I noted over 20 species of birds in Alex Park in Moss Side during a ten minute walk last year. Two of those were magpies and pigeons but it was still quite cheering. While walking by Alex Park pond yesterday, I accidentally took a few photos of two herons. I was taking a close-up of the periwinkle flower that I will put next, after these photos. I heard a loud, creaking squawk and looked up to see these two herons having a chat.

Whatever the question was, the answer seems to have been "no".

Greater periwinkle

I included a lesser periwinkle in the photos of flowers from my garden in October. The greater periwinkle is larger in all parts and untidier than the lesser periwinkle. Both the greater periwinkle (Vinca major) and the lesser periwinkle (Vinca minor) have long flowering seasons, though the lesser usually flowers from the first weeks of February.

Mayflowers

The mayflower is called by that name because the flowers of the British native species come out in May. Though recently the flowering can start several weeks before May Day.

The alternative name hawthorn is from it being a thorny tree used for making hedges. The use of the word "haw" for the fruit of the hawthorn is very early (~1000 AD) but possibly comes from the hawthorn or that it is a hedge-berry.

The name of the genus Crataegus is from the ancient Greek κράταιγος, krataigos (or κραταιγών, krataigon). This is generally accepted to be from the prefix kratai- meaning "strong". The origin of the ending is a matter of dispute.

What a shame they did not pick the name of one of the other hawthorns - ἀνθηδών, anthedon - meaning "the flowery one". This name was also a poetical allusion to the bee. It is thought that one of the British native hawthorns was, being also found in Greece, called ἀνθηδονοειδής, anthedonoeides - "like the flowery one".

I cannot say if any of my identifications of these types of Crataegus are correct. The RHS has 176 varieties and the Plant List from Kew Gardens has 380 accepted species and 1,230 yet to be assessed. As all these came from gardens, streets or parks, so they could be anything. Having said that, several of these seem to be varieties of Crataegus laevigata, the Midland thorn.

I saw a few varieties while on this walk. This first photo is of the tree that has the blossom pictured at the top of this page.

Some people might prefer the varieties with double flowers that look like tiny moss roses. I do not.

Other roses

The hawthorns are in the rose family and I saw a few other nice roses on my walk, mostly true roses of the genus Rosa.

The gorgeous potato rose Rosa rugosa. Easy to grow,
resistant to disease and neglect, flowers for ages, smells like the
best Turkish Delight and produces large edible rosehips.

This was nice deep yellow but I could not get close enough to smell it.

This overly double rose with a touch of purple sunburn
redeems itself with a fabulous strong and complex fragrance
rather like the finer attars of roses.

This slightly more orderly double rose was a deep scarlet red
with natural purple highlights. An equally enticing fragrance,
though distinctly different from the last.

The least rose saved for last. This common weed is usually called wood avens, it has many other names, including herb bennet and clovewort.

The name herb bennet is a corruption of the Latin herba benedicta (blessed herb), given because it was said to avert evil. The fresh root smells of clove and has been used for medicine and flavouring  ale. It was said to be best when dug around the 25th of March. A guide to the plants around Manchester noted that the root does not have that scent when the plant grows in damp places. So, not very fragrant in Manchester, I presume. The root was also placed in drawers and chests with linen to preserve and fragrance the cloth. Augsburg Ale was said to have a small bag of the roots added to the brew, which prevented it turning sour from contamination.

The flavour of cloves comes from the content of eugenol, found in the essential oil of cloves and the usual culinary varieties of basil. Polish studies showed 0.02 to 0.15% of essential oil with 69.2% eugenol. This is probably very variable as the eugenol is also stored as gein, a compound of eugenol with a sugar. Another study showed 0.52 to 0.65% yield of essential oil.

The word "avens" is of unknown origin before Old French. Linnaeus gave it the name Geum urbanum and wrote that its habitat was in the shady parts of Europe. The specific name urbanum has been occasionally taken and Englished to "city avens" or "town avens".

Unfortunately, I have this weed in my tiny garden. Though I did get the close-up above when the close-ups I tried while out walking did not work out well. Also the one below where the petals are recently shed and the burry fruit cluster developing. These were taken two days after my walk.

I decided it was time to weed again and removed a lot of avens plants. This was one of the bigger ones:

The roots did have a faint smell of cloves. I kept all the roots that came up mostly whole, I rinsed them and will dry them to see if the fragrance does increase. This dish has the roots of 18 plants, still wet from rinsing. Hopefully I will remember to try them once they are dry.