Banana's British Origin
Weird as it may sound, but the standard commercial banana today originated on a stately English estate.
The first banana fruit to reach England was recently identified from a Tudor cesspit. In the early 1600s a bunch was displayed in a London herbalist's shop. With the arrival of the modern heated glasshouse in the early 19
th century banana plant cultivation was possible.
In 1829 plants, probably originating in Mauritius, arrived at Alton Towers, the seat of the Earl of Shrewsbury. His chaplain in turn sent some to the 6
th Earl of Devonshire, William Cavendish's extensive Chatsworth Estate. There they came under the care of his brilliant young head gardener Joseph Paxton. Carefully he nurtured them in the Great Conservatory. They flowered in November 1834, and bore over 100 fruit next year in May. A plant was exhibited at the Royal Horticultural Society the same month. They were botanically described by Paxton as
Musa cavandishii, in honour of his patron the Duke. The Chatsworth Estate still extends over 35,000 acres.
Shortly thereafter, the Duke received a visit from John Williams, a missionary collecting contributions for his mission to the South Pacific. He was presented with two of the newly-invented Wardian Cases to transport the Cavendish banana plants to Samoa. While only a single plant survived the voyage, from it arose populations in many far-flung Pacific islands. Not so the unfortunate John Williams. Against advice he landed on a New Hebrides island in 1839. The inhabitants promptly killed and ate him.
Another weird fact:: Despite frequent popular reference to banana trees, there is no such thing. Botanically, the banana plant is a herb. It lacks a woody structure. Following fruiting, it dies but is replaced by shoots from its base -- "mothers" and daughters" in commercial terminology. And it may not look like a berry but botanists say otherwise, terming it a 'drupe.'
Although Cavendish bananas entered commercial mass production in 1903 it was another half-century before it gained but any prominence. Up until that time the standard banana was the Gros Michel. Many swear this predecessor to the Cavendish was far superior. Indeed many swear
at the Cavendish. In India, they are said to be known as 'hotel bananas' since only tourists eat them. Nevertheless, bananas have entered popular culture. The banana split arrived in 1904 thanks to a Latrobe, Pennsylvania drug store counterman. In Central America, commercial plantations overtook nations to such a degree that they became known as 'Banana Republics.' Across the Caribbean fast schooners were known as banana boats, commemorated in the
Banana Boat Song by Harry Belafonte in 1956 from a traditional Jamaican folk song. Miss Chiquita label arrived in 1963. About the same time the expression "going bananas" became used for becoming mad. Later Lisa Minnelli so described her sojourn in a psychiatric hospital.
Sadly, like its commercial predecessor the 'Gros Michel,' or 'Big Mike' as it was happily known by its admirers, the 'Cavendish' banana is doomed. The virulent Panama disease is pursuing its devastating path across the globe from its emergence in Southeast Asia. The perennially popular song,
Yes, We Have No Bananas by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn from the 1922 Broadway review
Make It Snappy could become all too true.
Astraea and Her Asters
In Greek mythology, Astraea, the daughter of Astraeus and Eos, was regarded as the Goddess of Justice. She is thus often depicted to this day as bearing a set of scales and a sword. The Roman poet Ovid recorded that she was the last of the immortals to live with humans during the Golden Age, one of the old Greek religion's five deteriorating Ages of Man. Horrified by increasing wickedness of the Iron Age that followed, Astraea fled.
Zeus, the supreme deity, observing her distress, granted her a place in the heavens. There she became the constellation Virgo, the celestial virgin also known as the 'Star Maiden' or 'Star Goddess.'
Looking down upon a dark and starless Earth, Astraea began to cry. Where her tears fell, beautiful asters sprang forth, reflecting the goddess' new realm since in Latin,
aster means 'star.'
According to popular legend, Astraea will one day return to Earth, bringing with her once again the Utopian Golden Age of which she as the ambassador.
Native Perennials
An eighteenth-century Englishman sneered at 'a few American weeds' being introduced into his country's landscapes. Today it appears more like our native perennials being ignored for a new creations by British plant breeders.
An example is
Aquilegia, Columbine: colourful selections derived from the original muddy mauve European form,
A. vulgaris or Granny's Bonnet, quickly disappear if all seed heads are not religiously removed to prevent self-seeding and probably reversion to the older undesirable form. A better choice might be the western blue
A. caerulea Colorado Columbine, the floral emblem of that state, and red
A. canadensis Eastern Columbine also known as Meeting Houses. The genera name is derived from the Latin,
aquila, a fancied resemblance of the flower spurs to eagle claws. Columbine from yet more Latin
columba, a dove, it is claimed appearing like a flight of doves. Two other North American species worth keeping an eye out for are
A. crysantha and
A. longissima, both yellow.
The so-called wild plant gardeners -- how can any garden by definition be 'wild?' -- recognize this and demand a return of their ancestral roots. In large part thanks to them, even the big box stores have been forced to stock such a selection.
A favourite -- some claim it is the most popular perennial -- is the magnificent scarlet Cardinal Flower,
Lobelia cardinalis. This despite its reputation for being somewhat tricky, perhaps even short-lived under cultivation.
Yet in wild, wet places and on river banks from Minnesota, Michigan, southern Ontario and southern New Brunswick southwards the brilliant blooms disperse the gloom. However, "A good many flowers bloom and fade away in deserted places, seen by no one," observed the poet Thomas Gray (1716-71)
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751).
Lobelia is named after Matthias de l'Obel (1538-1616) a Flemish botanist and physician to James I of England;
cardinalis coloured like a cardinal's robes, scarlet, an apt description.
Among other related species are
L. inflate, Indian Tobacco, with its small blue flowers commonly found over much of North America sprawling in woods, fields, roadsides and even gardens. Like
L. cardinalis found in swamps and also about 60cm high, the Blue Cardinal Flower or Great Lobelia,
L. siphilitica, ranges from Manitoba to western. New England on south. The unfortunate botanical name came thanks to its believed ability to cure that unpleasant sexually transmitted disease that carried off so many, including the Irish author of
Dracula, Bram Stoker, and the American gangster Al Capone.
It seems but a few years since it was difficult to discover Turtlehead,
Chelone glabra, for sale in local retailers. The intriguing white blooms indeed resemble the aquatic reptile so much as they deserve the Greek designation
chelone, a tortoise. In fact it will be found naturally in wet soils, on stream banks from Minnesota and Ontario through to Newfoundland and southwards. A few other species make up the genera, such as
C. barbata, pink,
C. lyonii, purple and the purple Shell Flower
C. oblique.
All this is not to ignore the fact that North American hybridizers have turned their attention to native species. The fiscal rewards are considerable. While a species cannot be 'patented' "improvements" to the original can and are, at least for a decade or so until such commercial protection runs out.
So it has been for yet another inhabitant of shady woods, the pretty evergreen
Heuchera sanguinea,
Coralbells. Despite the specific
sanguinea, meaning blood red, the flowers are nearer pink. Originating from the southwest United States down into Mexico, it is one of about 50 or so species of
Heuchera. Another American, Alumroot or
H. americana, ranges from Michigan to Minnesota and to the south and west, sprinkling woods with its red flowers.
H. mycrantha bears pale yellow blooms and
H. pubescens deep pink, giving hybridizers plenty to work with. The genera is named after Johann Heinrich Heucher (1677-1747), professor of medicine and botanist at Wittenberg; Germany.
Another for light shade is the Great Solomon's Seal,
Polygonatum biflorum that finds its home in wooded areas from Iowa to southern Ontario down into New York and further south, producing 30cm to 90cm arched sprays of white flowers followed by black berries. Since these blooms occur in pairs, it merits the specific
biflorum, while the generic name reflects the pointed rhizomes, Greek
polys, many, and
gony, knee or small joint.
By contrast, the wide open spaces of the wild prairies supported
Liatris pycnostachya, variously known as the Prairie Blazing Star, Gayfeather or, less ornately Button Snake Root. The 30cm to 120cm spikes of pink to red blooms brightened moist areas of prairies from Minnesota and Wisconsin south. The dense spike of the flower head is commemorated in its species name
pycnostachya. There are over 30 other species of
Liatris found east of the Rockies all part of the great Compositae or Daisy Family, so well represented in North America. Not all prefer a grassland habitat. The New England Blazing Star
L. borealis dwells in just such localities, preferring open woods. Confusingly, the Kansas Gay Feather
L. # spreads far outside its name state, to be found as far north as Wisconsin and southwestern Ontario.
According to one belief, those with more names is an indication of their popularity. Rightly so with
Tradescantia virginiana glorying in such names as Spiderwort, Flower of a Day, even Devil in the Pulpit -- the last possibly by those sufferers of arachnophobia. This must have been one of the earliest North American perennials to be introduced into horticulture having been collected by John Tradescant the Younger (1608-62), English botanist, gardener and plant collector or perhaps after his father, who died in 1637. The
virginiana indicates of Virginia and it ranges widely over eastern North America with blue-purple flowers although white and pink flowering varieties are available. It deserves its popularity by demonstrating an affinity for shaded areas. The name
Tradescantia may be more familiar as popular trailing houseplants. The genus of 65-70 species ranges from North into tropical South America, for example the pervasive purple-foliaged
T. zebrina from Mexico.