☙ Rosebay Willowherb

a.k.a. Fireweed.

Epilobium angustifolium L. (1753) WFO HP:FE LB

 = Epilobium spicatum Lam. (1779) (subsp. E. a. angustifolium); WFO BD LB

 = Chamaenerium angustifolium (L.) Scop (1771). WFO LB

Period English: rosebay willow herb; HP:FE LH S&K LB French willow; HP:FE HGA:OT willow herb. CHW LH S&K

Period French: Formal: epilobe en épi m. ('eared willowherb'). LB Colloquial: antonin m. ('anthony'); LB antonine f. ('anthony'); LB antonine fausse f. ('false anthony'); LB faux laurier m. ('false laurel'); LB laurier de Saint-Antoine m. ('St Anthony's laurel'); HP:FE LB herbe de Saint-Antoine f. ('herb St Anthony'); LB laurier fleuri m. ('flowering laurel'); LB laurier nain m. ('dwarf laurel'); LB nériette f.; BD LB osier fleuri m. ('flowering osier'); BD LB petit laurier rose m. ('small rose laurel'). LB

Period German: Große Weiderich Rösselin n. [sic: 'Gross Weiderick RƓsselin']. LB Per P.F. CĂŒrie, Unleitung die im mittleren und nördlichen Deutschland wildwachsenden Pflanzen (1849), Epilobium is Weiderich ?. (p.340).

Sentiments:

🏶︎ Celibacy ▲︎◆︎ (1825-1858); HP:FE TM FSO LH S&K HGA:OT HGA:LPF

🏶︎ Pretension ▲︎ (1840-1871); CHW TM FSO LH S&K GAL JS

🏶︎ Bravery and humanity ▲︎◆︎ (1867-1884); GAL JS KG

🏶︎ Humility ◆︎ (pre-1871). JS

Region:

Native: Across the temperate northern hemisphere.WFO

Introduced: Canary Islands.WFO

Seasonality: Deciduous perennial flowering summer to autumn, the stem turning pink and red in summer and autumn. Seedpods follow flowers, and burst into fluffy seed.

Period Colours: TBA.

Emblems:

Regional:

🏶︎ 27 March 1957 - Floral Emblem of the Yukon, Cananda: Epilobium angustifolium, recorded as commonly called 'fireweed', was adopted as the floral emblem of the territory of the Yukon, Canada, on 27 March 1957, and made official in the second session of the Yukon Council on 16 November 1957 (Chap. 4.1, Ordinances of the Yukon Territory Passed by the Yukon Council in the Year 1957, First and Second Sessions, Yukon: H.J. Taylor (1957) p.121; updated to Floral Emblem Act in 2002 as S.Y. 2002, c.92, s.1). A wreath of fireweed also appears on the territory flag. The design, selected from a territory-wide competition, was created by Yukon College graduate Lynn Lambert, formalised in the Flag Act of 1 December 1967, and officially adopted 1 March 1968 (current Act S.Y. 2002, c.91, s.1).

🏶︎ 2002 - County Flower of London: Voted county flower of London, England, in Plantlife's unofficial 2002 survey. Plantlife

Cultural and Religious:

🏶︎ 1940 - The London Blitz: Rosebay willowherb had long carried an association with growing from sites of destruction and fire, giving it its second and now most common name, 'fireweed' (while it is not called this by our authors, see Kipling below calling it by this name). As the German bombing campaign of London in World War II took its toll on the citizenry and the infrastructure, people noticed that rosebay willowherb colonised the bombed out sites, as if the plant had grown out of the ashes. With its firery purple flowers and red stems, this became its strongest legacy in England, and led to its adoption by the county of London in Plantlife's 2002 county flower survey (which see above).

Cited Species:

🏶︎ Epilobium angustifolium L. (1753) WFO HP:FE LB

 = Epilobium spicatum Lam. (1779) (subsp. E. a. angustifolium); WFO BD LB

 = Chamaenerium angustifolium (L.) Scop (1771). WFO LB

Other Verse:

❧ 'The hotel, with its suites of musty rooms, is a big tomb; the factory chimneys are cold; the villas have no glass in them, and the fire-weed glows in the centre of the driveways, mocking the arrogant advertisements in the empty shops.', 'From Tideway to Tideway VII: Captains Courageous', ◆︎ Rudyard Kipling, The Times 23 November (1892) Read Here; later published in Letters of Travel;

❧ 'The Song of the Rose-bay Willow-herb Fairy', ◆︎ Cicely Mary Barker, Flower Fairies of the Wayside, London: Blackie (1948) Read Here (this edition London: Blackie and Son Limited (1989) pp.1-2, on the Internet Archive);

❧ 'No tree grew there, only rough grass and many tall plants: stalky and faded hemlocks and wood-parsley, fire-weed seeding into fluffy ashes, and rampant nettles and thistles.', chapter 'The Old Forest', ◆︎ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, London: George Allen & Unwin (1954) p.112 (HarperCollins e-book version, 2004).

Sentiments

Celibacy

đŸœ± The sentiment of celibacy arises from the rosebay willowherb's association with St Anthony, as in the French names above.

St Anthony the Great (251-356, Coptic: âȀâȃâȃâȁ âȀâțâȧâȱâțâȓ) was a Coptic Christian who abandoned a life of wealth in Koma, Lower Egypt, to live as a hermit. According to tradition, although Anthony was plagued by temptations, he lived a strict ascetic life including celibacy, and a following of other ascetics grew around the abandoned Roman fort he had occupied in Pispir (now Der-el-Memun) in admiration of his devotion. Eventually, Anthony emerged from his solitude and instructed the disciples who had waited for him before again withdrawing to a home on Mount Colzim, where a monastery which bears his name, Der Mar Antonios, still stands.

As the first man to organise ascetic, withdrawn disciples in Christianity, he is also known as the 'Father of Monasticism', although Anthony himself did not establish a monastery. He is credited with miraculous healings, particularly from ergotism and skin diseases, variously under the label 'St Anthony's fire'.

Phillips calls rosebay willowherb '[St Anthony's] favourite flower', but the plant does not grow in Egypt, where Anthony spent his lifetime. The association appears to come from a belief that rosebay willowherb could cure 'St Anthony's fire'. While rosebay willowherb is ostensibly edible and has had traditional medicinal applications, I have not viewed any evidence towards this remedy or any others, and furthermore, given it often grows in heavily polluted sites and can carry toxic heavy metals, I must discourage the reader, like St Anthony, from the temptation of consuming this beautiful plant.

Pretension

đŸœ± Waterman compares this plant, growing by the water's side and bowing to the surface, to 'a vain woman, proud of her charms' (226), from whence arises the American sentiment.


Abécédaire de Flore

◼︎ B. DelachĂ©naye, 1811


NOMS DES FLEURS
substituées aux syllabes formées de plusieurs lettres.

NOM DES FLEURS. MOTS ANALOGUES.
49. neriette. assiette, fourchette.


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DESCRIPTION DES PLANTES
DE L’ABÉCÉDAIRE DE FLORE.

QUATRIÉME PLANCHE.


 49. NĂ©riette, Epilobium spicatum. Naturelle aux endroits frais et mĂȘme aquatiques, on l’a introduite dans les situations pareilles de nos grands jardins-paysages. Elle y fait un bon effet par le grand nombre et la haute stature de ses tiges, assez semblables Ă  des jets d’osier, ce qui lui a valu le nom trivial d'Osier-fleuri; pendant tout l’étĂ© chacune de ses tiges se termine par une longue grappe de fleurs lie-de-vin, et auxquelles on a voulu trouver de la ressemblance avec celles du Nerium ou Laurier-rose. Cette plante est vivace par ses racines, qui tracent au point d’en ĂȘtre incommodes.


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La Flore de la Manche

◼︎ LĂ©on Besnou, 1881

G. Epilobium L. — Epilobe.


De ΕπÎč, dessus, sur λοÎČός, gousse, fruit, allusion au fruit infĂšre ou de ΔπÎčλοÎČης, nuisible, plante des mauvais terrains.


E. SPICATUM Lamk. — E. EN ÉPI. E. angustifolium L. — G. Gesneri Will. ChamĂŠnerium spicatum Gray — angustifolium Scop.)[sic, no open] Lysimachia speciosa JB. — L. ChamĂŠnerion CB. — Antoniana — Herba Sancti Antonii Ges. hor. Onagra CĂŠsalp. Antonin, Antonine, herbe et laurier de Saint-Antone, Faux Laurier, Laurier fleuri, Laurier nain, petit Laurier rose, NĂ©riette, osier fleuri, Antonine fausse. Angl. Rose bay, Willow herb. All. Gross Weiderick RƓsselin. — Viv. — Juillet-aoĂ»t. Bois, buissons couverts, chemis ombragĂ©s. TR. Cherbourg, Hermitage de bas, Tourlaville, la Roche au Chat, les prĂ©s Bazans, Tollevast, Pierre ButtĂ©e, Brix, plateau de la Soreillerie, Valognes, bois du gĂ©nĂ©ral Baillod, St-Lo, route de Cenilly, Ste-Pience, bois du Parc, St-Hilaire-du-Harcouet, route de Ducey, Les Biards, bords de la SĂ©lune.


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Cite this page (MLA 9th): Never Never. “Rosebay Willowherb.” Glossa Hortensia, 7 Apr. 2025, neverxnever.neocities.org/glossahortensia/ebilobium. Accessed [DD Mon. YYYY].