Searching for dolphins amongst rhinos

(Delphinium)

I have always wanted to cultivate a thick and undulating curtain wall of Delphinium stalks, populated by bees and separating me from the world.  I have long imagined a forest of flowers that contradict scale, proportion and reason.  Indigo and white.  And the flowers of my imagination are fragrant. 

But such things are impractical, and so I grow specimens and not forests.  I imagine the rest and search for dolphins.

Flickr Photo: delphinium

Originally uploaded on 30 March 2007

by tsunami_greycat

 

My Delphinium x elatum seedlings are up and ready.  Depsite the snow, I'm thinking Delphinium thoughts.  It's just a matter of time and the dolphin search can begin again.

 What dolphins?

Well... the "new latin" moniker for Larkspur - "Delphinium" - comes to us almost unchanged from the Greek. 

"from Greek delphinion, larkspur, probably diminutive of  delphis, delphin-, dolphin (from the shape of the nectary)."^[i]

 The dolphin thing supposedly describes the shape of the bud… or so I'm told.  I don't see it, and I've been looking for years.  But I am assured that there is a dolphin there somewhere!  Greater men than I have seen this, so I'll keep looking (even though I have another theory).^[1]

 The whole dolphin association comes from a guy about whom I've been meaning to write for some time: Pedanius Dioscorides (way, way, way before Linnæus)^[2]  Unfortunately (or not?), I lack the energy to dive into Pedanius just now.  I'll just quote something and move on:

Pedanius Dioscorides "was an ancient Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist who practised in Rome at the times of Nero. He had the opportunity to travel extensively seeking medicinal substances from all over the Roman and Greek world.  Dioscorides is famous for writing a five-volume book De Materia Medica that is a precursor to all modern pharmacopeias, and is one of the most influential herbal books in history."^[ii]

The dolphin problem seems to originate in the Materia Medica.  Damn it!  This is a fairly reliable source. 

I'll keep looking.

After all, I found the Rhinos.  They were obvious.  I'm thinking of Snapdragons: Antirrhinum majus.  Antirrhinum (an-TEE-ry-num) = Snout-like (from the Greek word rhis - rhino snout) majus = larger.  One would think that dolphins shouldn't be too difficult.

Flickr photo: Snapdragons

Originally Uploaded on 5 December 2006

By Grandma BJ

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Notes

^[1] 1 My dilettante experience with language has taught me one thing: there's always another explanation.  Sure, the bud might look like a dolphin.  But an equally viable conclusion might be that these plants look like something, which in turn looks like something else, and so on... and so on... until we get to something which is aptly named. 

For example, (an example from this very plant) the word "delphinidin" is another word with dolphin origins.  A delphinidin molecule "is an anthocyanidin (Greek anthos = Flower, kyáneos = purple) and a primary plant pigment."  (Delphiniums are poisonous... cyanide.)

So, do these molecules look like dolphins?

Delphinidin Molecule from Wikipedia Commons

No.  There are no dolphins here either.  But the molecule is named for a plant with which it is associated.

…And so I have to wonder about the plant itself.  See where I'm going?

I'm thinking that way back when, maybe in the bronze age, these flowers were discovered growing on some island or something that was known for Dolphins.  These flowers might have been check-in gifts at Sea World of Phoenicia or something.  It has to be something like that… because I don't see any damned dolphins in these blooms.  Am I wrong?  Am I blind?  -  back to text

^[2] And this reminds me of an interesting email exchange I had with Craig, at Ellis Hollow.  He pointed out that Linnæus was really a latecomer to the biology game… that the "big story" happened earlier.  Craig was (and is) correct.  He recommended Anna Pavord's Book, The Naming of Names, which barely mentions Linnæus. 

This is no surprise and generally "as it should be."  After all, the contributions of Linnæus are not, in my opinion, biological but philosophical (and poetical).  There were a hundred thousand botanists (known and unknown) before Linnæus showed up.  This fact diminishes neither Dioscorides nor Linnæus… in my opinion.  -  back to text

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Sources

^[i] From bartleby.com, specifically here - back to text 

^[ii] From wikipedia: Dioscorides  -  back to text

 

Comments

[Ellis Hollow]

Hank: A footnote. You make me sound like some kind of expert or something when I'm really only a guy who was able to get the gist of the last chapter of a very long book. ;-7

Snow and sleet greets the commute this morning. Joy!

[Pam]

Okay, I'm on the run and need to read this again, but (with that said): perhaps the 'dolphin' part of the description is somewhat misleading - and maybe over time, whomever said/wrote 'dolphin' instead of Delphinidea family (simple laziness perhaps? or simply migrating to something that is more understandable?) of which there are many interesting noses, of varying degrees of truncation. For example, the common (I dislike the use of the word 'common' with respect to almost anything) bottlenose dolphin goes by Tursiops truncatus...so one thinks of a truncated snout/face, which, if I remember the young buds of a delphinium from my days of growing them in Michigan, well - maybe. But then if one truly opens up their visuals to the Family Delphinidae. well then, so many more options are available! My guess: it was named after a cetacean that was more abundant in the past, a pilot whale perhaps? Perhaps the 'fat dolphin' wasn't what we think of a dolphin at all now, but was a pilot whale (or similar species of cetacean), which has a very truncated, fat 'face'?

Or not. I'd need to pursue this further (aka look things up) - but off to the lab I go. I miss being able to grow delphiniums though...and peonies...and lilacs. But perhaps delphinium the most of all. I have annual larkspur re-seeding everywhere, and I enjoy them - but they aren't delphiniums.

[Ki]

Hank, Thanks for the definition of nectary. Maybe the color and the way the dark gray/black/brown inner part of the delphinium flower resembled a dolphin to Dioscorides? The blue and wine (dark seas) colors would have been the ocean background. Interesting that the Greeks knew about rhinos way back when. More like a hippo snout to me.

[El]

I've wondered about my attraction to foxgloves/delphiniums/snapdragons. Is it the flower form? The bees? The height? The colors, esp. the blues of the delphiniums? I know not. But grow them I do.

Or I think I do, as there's 4 wet inches of snow out there and more falling. Poor plants.

[Bruce]

I love this flower. I've grown them. I love dolphins. I've swum with them. Never made the connection, but now they will be inseparable in my mind.

You've caused "The Dolphins" by Fred Neil to play in my head. Thank you. I hope it stays for a while.

If you have 4:21 to spare, go here (hear) and you can have it in your head, too. And while you listen, watch the wild dolpins swim and perhaps it will come to you.

[anna maria]

Thanks Hank for a lovely post and Bruce for the link to the video and music.

[The County Clerk]

Wonderful comments here!

Each is a kernal for an excellent discussion (except Craig's modestly - the less said about an expert's claims of no expertise, the better).

What rich contributions! And I hate to admit it, but now, based upon these comments, I think I see what could be a dolphin or some sort of cetacean against the "sea" of blue and wine. Yes. I had not looked at properly. I was being too literal and failed to engage my imagination. A sin.

All these years and all I needed to have done was ask smarter people than myself. THANK YOU.

And yes... I am also inexplicably drawn to the tall wavering show-offs: foxgloves / delphiniums /snapdragons. (I'm jumping off a lupine cliff - I'm 10 pages into something on THAT but have to cut it down PLUS I'm going off the deep end with beneficial bacteria in their roots. I saw an image the other day of a "club" of bacteria and can't shake the impications. Anyway, it is too long and way out of control. I have to pour a bourbon and re-write it. Maybe next week. But the point is: the Lupine drive me crazy too.

I don't know why (and I don't wonder). I'm not very public about my very private beliefs, but these flowers are a church or temple to me.

And the music... Bruce... I have 9,000 songs on my home music server but can't seem to listen to any other than the Charlie Haden (with which you hooked me up). Thanks.

[Kim]

I will bow to the expertise of much better botany geeks than I... (see above.) However, I want--no, need--to say that gardening is sometimes about practicality, and sometimes more about the magic. I have probably commented a hundred times that "planting X in that spot is a cleaver solution to Y problem..." but I can't even remember the X's and Y's to fill in. A forest wall of towering delphiniums? THAT I would remember.

(A front yard full of foxgloves, of course, would be magical as well...) :)

[Pam]

I think that I've found them! Playing in my annual larkspur that has reseeded like crazy...(go take a look and tell me what you think).

[Janice Dowdeswell]

What a fascinating discussion.  I found it by using google's blog search for 'delphinums' and I've referenced it on our delphinium history page.  I hope that's ok?  We have a picture of the 'dolphins' on that page too.