07 May 2010

Pentecôte

When I was out walking the dog one afternoon last week, I saw our grapegrower-winemaker neighbor J-N Guerrier out working on his vines. He was at the other end of a long row of vines and was with another person that I didn't recognize from that distance.

Des pentecôtes — wild orchids — in a field near Saint-Aignan
sur-Cher.
You can see our house off in the distance.

Callie and I turned off the gravel road and walked up the row towards J-N and the mystery person. It turned out to be an older lady who looked familiar but whom I hadn't met before. She was J-N's mother-in-law, it turned out. I could see a clear resemblance between her and her daughter C., J-N's wife.

These flowers are protected in certain parts of France,
but are plentiful here in Touraine.


I pointed out some pretty purple flowers growing in a field just at the edge of J-N's plot of vines, saying that I thought they were wild orchids. “Are they?” J-N's mother-in-law asked. “We've always called them « des pentecôtes »” — that would be Pentecost flowers in English. J-N's mother-in-law is probably in her 70s.

I don't know whether the word Pentecôte used as the name of a flower would be capitalized, or whether it would take a final S in the plural. Who knows?

A close-up, with Callie up ahead

In Christian tradition, La Pentecôte is a religious holiday that falls on the seventh Sunday after Easter Sunday. I assume that's approximately when these little orchids make their annual appearance in the fields all around Touraine, including these around the vineyards near Saint-Aignan.

I found the flowers listed by the name Pentecôte on the Belles Fleurs de France web site and also here and here.

5 comments:

  1. Orchidophiles call them orchis bouffon, these days, but their country name is Pentecôte. In English they are Green-winged Orchids, and the scientific Anacamptis morio. Another very similar species (Early Purple Orchid) is also known as Pentecôte. I am sure you are right about them being called Pentecôte because they flower at that time of year.

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  2. The orchids are beautiful! I'm glad they are being protected in France. I enlarged the photo with Callie in the background- I was in France for a minute or two. Thanks for that.

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  3. It took several concentrated looks before I realized that was Callie in the background. If you hadn't mentioned her, I never would have known.

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  4. Lovely pictures, and as I got to the end of your post, I thought, "Susan will know." And there she was. Thanks, S.

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  5. GORGEOUS! Such a romantic flower!

    Kelly

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