What is a wallflower?

By Chelsie Vandaveer

June 20, 2003

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The wallflower (Cheiranthus cheiri Linnaeus) is a member of the Brassicaceae, the mustard family. Native to southern Europe, the wild type is yellow flowering, domesticated varieties range in color from yellow to deep red. The genus designation was built from the Greek, cheiros, meaning hand and anthus meaning flower. Small bouquets of the fragrant flowers were often carried by ladies and this fashion is believed the reasoning for the
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Small bouquets of the fragrant flowers were often
carried by ladies and this fashion is believed
the reasoning for the generic name.
Cheiranthus cheiri Wall Flower Giclee Print
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generic name.

According to the Webster's Ninth New Collegiate, the common name wallflower first appeared in print in the English language in 1578. It was probably in verbal use long before then. Both single- and double-flowered varieties were familiar plants to John Gerard in 1597. "The first groweth upon bricke and stone walls, in the corners of churches everywhere, as also among rubbish and such other stony places. The double Wall-floure groweth in most gardens of England. They floure for the most part all the yeere long, but especially in winter...."

The 1889 Century Unabridged Dictionary states that the wallflower "grows on old walls, cliffs, and sides of quarries....by preference upon walls, forming there an enduring bush...." The name came to refer to any person "who, at a ball or party, sits by the wall, or looks on without dancing, either from choice or from being unable to dance or to obtain a partner."

Kurt Stüber with the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research has posted a herbarium illustration of the original wallflower taken from Thomé's Flora. To view the wild type, click on the link:

http://caliban.mpiz-koeln.mpg.de/~stueber/thome/band2/tafel_109.html

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the image.

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