When I read English novels as a teenager growing up in tropical Queensland, decades before the Internet, I had no idea what most of the flowers the authors talked about even looked like. Coming across a carpet of periwinkles in the woods is always a source of amazement to me. The name comes from the Latin, pervinca meaning to entwine. They grow in clumps about 4 or 5 inches tall which produce trailing vines about 20 inches long which put down roots and continue to multiply.
Lorsque je lisais des romans anglais pendant mon adolescence dans le Queensland tropical, bien avant l’arrivée d’Internet, je n’avais aucune idée de ce à quoi ressemblaient la plupart des fleurs dont parlaient les auteurs. Rencontrer un tapis de pervenches dans le bois est toujours une source d’étonnement pour moi. Le nom vient du latin, pervinca qui signifie s’entrelacer. Elles poussent en touffes d’environ 10 à 15 cm de haut qui produisent des vignes rampantes d’environ 20 cm de long qui s’enracinent et ainsi de suite.
4 replies on “Wild Periwinkles – Pervenches sauvages”
We may not have known what they were like but there was a sense of beauty and wonder to their names. On visiting OS, they did not disappoint.
Thanks for sharing the Periwinkles.
I personally will never forget my first daffodils under the snow with Warwick Castle in the background.
I’m always amazed at how many flowers I encounter in the wild here are what became well known garden plants in the western world.
I quite agree.