The Renaudière vineyard is just full of these blue flowers right now. The hot dry weather we had for a couple of months must have been ideal conditions for them. The flowers are one of several that are commonly known as cornflowers.
The plant that flowers this way is actually wild chicory. It's closely related to the salad greens that we call "curly endive" and "Belgian endive" in the U.S. Bitter salad greens like radicchio and escarole are also closely related to it. Wild chicory is native to Europe, but has been naturalized in North America, China, and Australia.
By the way, I'm throwing in this photo of yesterday morning's sky over the vineyard because of how blue it is too. I mentioned hot weather up above, but we're in a cool snap right now. It feels almost chilly outside this morning, and yesterday I had to put on jeans and a long-sleeved shirt before I went out walking with Natasha.
Back to the flowers — why are they called "cornflowers"? It's because they grow on the edges of fields of grain, and the British word "corn" just means grain. In America, "corn" is maize, which is also called "Indian corn." In France, the wild chicory plant is called — surprise! — chicorée sauvage. It's also called chicorée amère — bitter chicory — because its leaves have a bitter taste.
In the middle ages, the wild chicory plant was considered to have magical qualities. It was used to blunt or quell the human libido. In other words, it was understood to be an antiaphrodisiac. The French wikipedia article lists 13 varieties and subspecies of wild chicory. One variety gives the chicory that is added to or substituted for coffee.
Gotta correct you there, Ken.... corn is wheat.... barleycorn is barley....and oats is, well... oats..... and collectively, they are grain.
ReplyDeleteGreat chicory pix.... it is nice that these cooler mornings allow the flowers to remain a little longer.
In the heat, they were gone almost before the sun was fully awake... chicory is one of mt favourite blues...
though, here, we've had cultivated chicory escape the beds and now....round the potager anyhows....
we have both varieties side by side... and the broad, round-leaved cultivated ones have a purple tinge to the centre...
and the tips.... of the petals. But only really noticeable where there is a wild one directly alongside.
I like them so much, I mow around them.... provided, in the main, they are in a convenient position.
But they are a survivor.... even where I've had to mow them, they flower.... right at ground level.
I am sure that this, like the British poppy, was what the troops kept seeing a hundred years ago.....
indeed, the original memorial had a chicory flower as the main part.... and not the cornflower that is now used.
The poppy is the emblem of the Royal British Legion in the UK synonymous with 11th of the 11th end of WW1. I think that your flower is the emblem of the French version and possibly known as a 'bleuet'.
DeletePotty, the real Cornflower is now the Bluet.... what I am referring to is a wonderful early sculpture done as a memorial to the fallen in the early 1920s.... that depicts this flower, the chicory.... much longer lasting and persistent, like the field poppy.... and both these flowers are much more likely to have survived and flowered on a trampled over battleground. The bluet requires tall grasses to support it, like the deep red Corncockle, Also, the Cornflower has a very short flowering season.... the chicory just goes on and on.... like the poppy.... in fact, for longer.
DeleteWiktionary says corn in the British Isles is: "The main cereal plant grown for its grain in a given region, such as oats in parts of Scotland and Ireland, and wheat or barley in England and Wales."
ReplyDeleteAnd the Cambridge dictionary says: "UK (the seeds of) plants, such as wheat, maize, oats, and barley, that can be used to produce flour"
DeleteCambridge American? And I don't trust anything in Wiki, until I've read it elsewhere. I use the OED, and always have done.... where I grew up... London and East Anglia.... if you wanted barley, you couldn't use the word corn... only for wheat was corn... and, despite all the American airbases, maize was maize!
DeleteAs far as I can tell, the Cambridge dictionary comes from Cambridge U. in Blighty. And the OED gives the same definition as Wiktionary: 1. British: the chief cereal crop of a district, especially (in England) wheat or (in Scotland) oats.
DeleteWe all need to broaden our understandings.
In the "desert" of Southern California, there were white blooming chicory. I wnoder if they were natives?
ReplyDeleteFrom two years ago, this post about white chicory flowers in the Renaudière vineyard here in the Saint-Aignan area. Albinos?
Deletechm, hope you are enjoying your trip.
DeleteKen, I missed a few days and just saw your post with your lovely geraniums and hydrangeas. Beautiful!
Your use of "blightly" above made me laugh.
Whatever you call them, they are a beautiful shade of blue and how nice to see them blooming here and there ..
ReplyDeleteYes, the shade of blue is beautiful! I'm sure that my first encounter wit the word cornflower,was seeing it written on the side of one of my Crayola crayons. I'll bet we all learned lots of words that way.
ReplyDeleteJudy
flowers are great
ReplyDeleteI've read that chicory was used as a coffee substitute in France during World War 2, grinding the roots perhaps? Anyone know for sure?
ReplyDeleteI imagine the taste would be rather bitter.
Emm, the American Luziane coffee — since 1902 — is a blend of chicory and coffee.
DeleteYou're right about coffee substitute, but the ground root of chicory was used with coffee in France long before WWII. During the occupation, there was no coffee but chicory was available!
I remember my grandmother in the late twenties and thirties making coffee with chicory and it had a very special taste.
One day I was at Intermarché and picking up a couple of briques of the coffee I've been buying and enjoying for nearly 15 years now. Another shopper, a man about my age, asked me if I thought that brand of coffee was good. I told him yes. He immediately said that he needed to find some chicory to use with it, because he liked the blend of the two.
DeleteKen, you should have said : Another shopper, an old man about my age...:—)
Delete