"une clairière dans un forêt"

[muckefuck]

Speaking of gardening, I just came across a flamboyant description in Gautier ("Quelle surprise!" I hear you all saying) of an English garden on the Avenue Gabriel. And whereas I've been pretty good so far at just chugging through and ignoring any descriptive terms I don't know (since, really, it's not going to improve my appreciation significantly to know exactly what kind of sumptuous garment is dripping from the Countess' ivory frame), I just can't stand to blip over plant names in quite the same way. Donc, voilà la liste:

myosotis forget-me-not
cactier raquette
asclépiade incarnate swamp milkweed
millepertuis St John's wort
cymbalaire toadflax
joubarbe Sempervivum (succulent genus which includes hens-and-chicks)
lychnis des Alpes Alpine catchfly
lierre d'Irlande Irish ivy
aristoloche birthwort
grenadille bleue blue passionflower
gypsophile baby's breath
glycine de Chine Chinese wisteria
périplocas de Grèce silk vine
vernis du Japon Japanese lacquer tree
tuyas du Canada American arborvitae
plane de Virginie American sycamore?
ray-grass = ryegrass?

Now that I've looked them up, I don't feel so bad about not recognising them. Many are species which I simply haven't come across here, and even some I know aren't known by these names any longer in French (e.g. I'm assuming Gautier's plane de Virginie is what is commonly called platane d'Occident, i.e. a tree I've known all my life as a "sycamore").

Comments

[bitterlawngnome.livejournal.com]

sycamores used to be called "plane trees" in europe, so yeah.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Well, there's also a California sycamore (Platanus racemosa, platane de Californie), and I can easily imagine a European dandy who's never been to this continent getting the two confused.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

*facepalm* THAT'S what a "plane tree" is! Thank you, I could never make sense of that term.

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

I've been stunned and charmed that my kids are getting some education in recognising different types of trees by their leaves while they're here. In general there's more attention to plants than I had when I was a kid in England or saw in the US - so far we've had jonquil season, iris time and the "festival" of lilies of the valley during the last week of April - I've heard May day referred to as "jour de muguet." All new to me as cultural markers.

But really who can blame them when toadflax is the romantic cymbalaire and swamp milkweed is "Asclepiad incarnate? The poetic spirit and/or health and bodily care made leafy flesh?

I still can't get used to eating grenades, though.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Whereas in the Revolutionary Calendar, Mayday is le jour de sainfoin and the jour de muguet falls on the 26th of April.

[richardthinks.livejournal.com]

oh. It probably was April 26th. My French is still not exactly conversational.