used a digging stick to forage bulbs and roots
“without disturbing other plants. Natives were
appalled when they saw the large holes and
destruction caused by non-natives’ ‘modern’
digging tools. Many California Natives prefer
that Pinus sabiniana be called gray pine.”
The large cones of this species were impor-
tant as a food source, with seeds rich in oil and
protein. Aljos Farjon, in his book “Pines: Drawing
and Descriptions of the Genus Pinus” (2005),
seems to balk at replacing “Digger” with “the
less colourful ‘grey pine,’” a gesture he dismisses
as “modern day political correctness.” He quotes
a passage by John Muir (in “The Mountains of
California,” 1894) describing Indians harvest-
ing the seeds and roasting them. Muir’s own
words, while edifying, reveal a staggering level of
unexamined cultural bias:
“Then, in the cool evenings, men, women
and children, with their capacity for dirt greatly
increased by the soft resin with which they are
all bedraggled, form circles around campfires,
on the bank of the nearest stream, and lie in
easy independence cracking nuts and laughing
and chattering, as heedless of the future as the
squirrels.”
According to Arthur Lee Jacobson's “Trees
of Seattle” (2006), the three-needled Pinus
sabiniana—with its substantial cones, somewhat
sparse, gray-tinted, and weeping foliage—is
rare in our city. There are specimens in the
Washington Park Arboretum, UW campus and
Chittenden Locks, as well as at Rodgers Park.
The tree is adapted to warm, dry and rocky
conditions, so it can be a challenge to grow here.
In California, it is often found growing near
Ceanothus cuneatus and native oaks.
Wandering Jew is one common name
for the houseplant species of Tradescantia
(usually a reference to T. zebrina). The notion
of the Wandering Jew is so firmly entrenched
in Western culture that people don’t even think
twice about its meaning. It comes from an early
medieval Christian legend about a Jew who was
said to have goaded Jesus when he was on the way
to the Crucifixion. Because of this, the Jew was
condemned to eternal wandering (or at least until
22 v Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin
the Second Coming). This myth has been used to
characterize Jews as traitors and outsiders for
centuries, providing a ready excuse for persecu-
tion and genocide. Horticulture can do without
this common name, especially when the name
spiderwort readily evokes the plant’s sprawling
nature.
WORD PICTURES
While the meaning of some common names
is transparent and self-evident, that of others is
more cryptic and poetic. Here are examples:
Town hall clock, Adoxa moschatellina.
(Photo courtesy Bernd Haynold/Wikimedia Commons)
Melancholy gentleman, Astrantia major.
(Photo by Uoaei1/Wikimedia Commons)