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So-called Lebanese Cress
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Posted by TonyfromOz z10 NSW Aust (My Page) on Sun, Aug 28, 05 at 7:28
| For years I have been bothered about the identification of the plant sold at garden centres in NSW under the name "Lebanese Cress - Aethionema coridifolium". Aethionema is a genus of crucifers (family Brassicaceae) but the plant sold is obviously an umbellifer (family Apiaceae), so the botanical name was clearly wrong. But I was never able to identify it further.
Now while Googling for images of another plant I chanced to come across pictures of what I believe is this umbellifer under its correct name. It is Apium nodiflorum, a European native aptly known as 'Fool's Watercress'.
Thought I would share this with herb growers here in the hope that this false name may eventually be laid to rest. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: So-called Lebanese Cress
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Thank you so much, Tony, for this correction! I had put a ? after Aethionema coridifolium in my plant database as the flowers didn't look at all like Brassicaceae.
I wonder how long it will take to get the correction made by nurseries, plant-suppliers etc, etc...
Rose-Marie |
RE: So-called Lebanese Cress
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| Sadly this kind of thing is rife in the nursery industry. It's probably a function of the "folk lore" type system of naming plants, ie. word of mouth, chinese whispers type scenario. An example I enountered recently was that of the New Zealand Flax (Phormium sp.) which has become known broadly as just "Flax". Someone I was talking to had been told that the cloth Linen was made from flax, and had drawn the obvious (but incorrect) conclusion that Linen was made from Phormium. Of course it's completely different to Linum and in a completely different family from the other side of the globe, how much more wrong could you be? Trouble is seemingly harmless bits of mis-information infiltrate common knowledge and spread right through the community like a disease! Tony, I love the irony of your example with the common name 'Fool's Watercress' :) Put a smile on my face, thanks for the post. |
RE: So-called Lebanese Cress
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| Thanks for that - a friend actually gave me some, believing it was lebanese watercress. I think you can still eat it, but I guess it doesn't have the nutritional value watercress would have. |
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