Scottish Wildflowers

**ThistleDown** · 14th November 11, 05:44 PM

Originally Posted by tulloch

Or could they be the seeds of the Thistle? Well, pretty in any event.

Not sure which pic you are referring to, Tulloch. One of the ones I posted is the seed carrier of the milk thistle and I posted it as a play on my "name".

**ThistleDown** · 14th November 11, 05:50 PM

This isn't my photo, but its of the "twinflower" found all over Inverness-shire, Nairnshire and Easter Ross.

**ThistleDown** · 14th November 11, 05:56 PM

This is the "winter green" that grows throughout the pine forests of the Highlands.

**Bugbear** · 14th November 11, 07:11 PM

I've been looking many of these up as we go. It's unclear from Wikipedia: did Linnaeus use the twinflower as part of his heraldry, as in arms?

**CopperNGold** · 14th November 11, 07:37 PM

My father had the front of our home landscaped in various heathers and rhododendrons, and we had several enormous holly trees. Now I know why he made those choices. It was his and my heritage growing right in front of me!

Of course, those are the ones I love the most.

**ThistleDown** · 15th November 11, 01:14 AM

I'm sorry, Ted. I've a never-ending supply of Highland wildflowers at my door and beyond -- some even attractive to hummingbirds and butterflies -- and many chosen as clan badges because they were "to hand", as it were. But as for "did Linnaeus use the twinflower as part of his heraldry, as in arms?" I can be of no help to you whatsoever and must pass you on to others.

**Bugbear** · 15th November 11, 01:27 AM

ThistleDown, thanks for posting and discussing the flowers. It's actually my fault for looking things up on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linnaea
It says about Carl Linnaeus under the "Cultural references" section:

Linnaeus took Linnaea borealis as his own personal symbol when he was raised to the Swedish nobility in 1757. In his Critica Botanica (1737), Linnaeus had used Gronovius' name Linnaea as an example to advocate the use of commemorative personal names as botanical names:

Perhaps one of the experts of heraldry will stumble across this thread and answer the question.

**ThistleDown** · 15th November 11, 01:55 AM

Lovely, delicate little Highland forest thing despite all that Latin and Swedish, Ted. Speaking of delicate wild flowers, CR Mackintosh did some wonderful watercolours of flowers worth investigating for a woodland garden. Among them is fritillaria. My wife has encouraged this to grow in a dappled spot in our BC garden, but this is CRM's illustration, published in most books on this so-talented man

**Pleater** · 15th November 11, 08:05 AM

Forest?

All the fritillarias I have seen in the wild have been in open grassland.

Perhaps it is a different variety, though - or maybe the weather.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

**cessna152towser** · 15th November 11, 08:20 AM

Ah the chequered fritillary!
Doesn't do well here 550 feet above sea level and 50 miles inland in Scotland.
I planted twenty five of those bulbs in my garden about twenty years ago. Only one of them ever flowered. It flowered annually until about three years ago and has not been seen since.