Today’s morning name was Haworthia, the genus of some attractive succulent plants. Named for a person named for a place (celebrated for its Brontë connections) named for the hawthorn bush or tree (Crataegus), which bears haws as its fruit. Incidentally, Haworth (/ˈhæwɜːrθ/), in Yorkshire, led me by spelling to Hawick (remarkably, pronounced /ˈhɔɪk/), in Scotland, though apparently it’s hawks in Hawick vs. haws in Haworth.
Haworthia. From Wikipedia:
(#1) Haworthia fasciata ‘Boston’
Haworthiais a large genus of small succulent plants endemic to Southern Africa (Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa).
Like the aloes, they are members of the subfamily Asphodeloideae and they generally resemble miniature aloes, except in their flowers, which are distinctive in appearance. They are popular garden and container plants.
… The genus is named after the botanist Adrian Hardy Haworth.
And he got his name from a place, Haworth. From Wikipedia:
Haworth is a village in West Yorkshire, England, in the Pennines 3 miles (5 km) southwest of Keighley, 10 miles (16 km) west of Bradford and 10 miles (16 km) east of Colne in Lancashire. The surrounding areas include Oakworth and Oxenhope. Nearby villages include Cross Roads, Stanbury and Lumbfoot.
Haworth is a tourist destination known for its association with the Brontë sisters and the preserved heritage Keighley and Worth Valley Railway.
Haworth is first mentioned as a settlement in 1209. The name may refer to a “hedged enclosure” or “hawthorn enclosure”
So, back to hawthorns. From Wikipedia:
(#2) Flowers and fruits of common hawthorn
Crataegus (from the Greek kratos “strength” and akis “sharp”, referring to the thorns of some species) commonly called hawthorn, thornapple, May-tree, whitethorn, or hawberry, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the family Rosaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, Asia and North America. The name “hawthorn” was originally applied to the species native to northern Europe, especially the common hawthorn C. monogyna, and the unmodified name is often so used in Britain and Ireland. The name is now also applied to the entire genus and to the related Asian genus Rhaphiolepis. The name haw, originally an Old English term for hedge, applies to the fruit.
(Previously on this blog, on 7/5/17 in “More news not for penises”, a section on Crataegus crus-galli, a species of hawthorn known by the common names cockspur hawthorn and cockspur thorn.)
The common hawthorn has flowers with a sweet scent that some people find faintly unpleasant, but many species have flowers with strongly pungent, unpleasant odors (like that of rotting or decomposing flesh).
From NOAD on haw:
noun haw: the red fruit of the hawthorn. ORIGIN Old English haga, of Germanic origin; probably related to hedge (compare with Dutch haag ‘hedge’).
Bonus: Hawick. From Wikipedia:
Hawick (/ˈhɔɪk/) [‘hawk’s farm’] is a town in the Scottish Borders council area and historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is 10.0 miles (16.1 km) south-west of Jedburgh and 8.9 miles (14.3 km) south-southeast of Selkirk. It is one of the farthest towns from the sea in Scotland, in the heart of Teviotdale, and the biggest town in the former county of Roxburghshire. Hawick’s architecture is distinctive in that it has many sandstone buildings with slate roofs. The town is at the confluence of the Slitrig Water with the River Teviot. Hawick is known for its yearly Common Riding, for its rugby team Hawick Rugby Football Club and for its knitwear industry.
There is apparently no plant Hawickia.
Leave a Reply