The plants of middle earth

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Laurinque- This is almost certainly the koleurainia or golden rain tree. though if Numenor was a tropical place other choices like the golden shower tree (Cassia fistulosa) are possible. I believe both have good wood.

I'm pretty sure that Laurelin herself, and thus laurinque, are explicitly based on the laburnum.

[Child of the 7th Age]

Welcome! I do not possess your knowledge of plants and gardening, and I am not sure if this will help you (indeed, you may already have seen it), but there is a wonderful letter (#312) where Tolkien discusses some of the flowers in LotR. He is looking through the Cape Flower Book and says this:

I have not seen anything that immediately recalls niphedril or elannor or alfirin: but that I think is because those imagined flowers are lit by a light that would not be seen ever in a growing plant and cannot be recaptured by paint. Lit by that light, niphedril would be simply a delicate kin of a snowdrop' and elanor a pimpernel (perhaps a little enlarged) growing sun-gold flowers and star-silver ones on the same plant, and sometimes the two combined. Alfirin ("immortal") would be an immortelle, but not dry and papery: simply a bell-like flower, running through many colors, but soft and gentle....

I am always amazed at how much practical knowledge Tolkien had about flowers and how he obviously loved them. At the same time, when he writes about flowers, even those that have equivalents in the "real world" he describes them in such a way to become "more" than they were before......we see shadows and nuances that are only hinted at when we look at a real blossom on earth.

Have you seen the book "The Plants of Middle-earth: Botany and Subcreation" by Dinah Hazell? Lalwende has mentioned this before, but it is a lovely, lovely book. What makes it unusual and a joy to read are all the plates: replications of pen and ink sketches and watercolors. I have just dipped in and out of it, but will be going on a plane trip and am taking it along for a "serious" read.

Haskell makes an interesting point. She talks about how, in the middle of a world filled with strange and fantastic beings, Tolkien used "familiar" grasses and forests and flowers to create a landscape we feel comfortable in. Although there are fantastic, magical plants that have no earthly equivalent, most of the flora actually came from Tolkien's England. There's a fascinating chapter where JRRT surveys female hobbit names and, looking closely at each flower, tries to identify the characteristics that the parents were emphasizing when they gave their child that particular name.

So much Tolkien criticism nowadays is just "same old, same old". But this book shows a different way of looking at things. It also reminds us just how unusual a man Tolkien was.....that we can't just pigeonhole him as "Christian" or "medievalist" or "philologist". The minute we do that another piece of Tolkien---in this case, botanist, gardener, and lover of plant lore--surfaces and gives us a big surprise.

[Alfirin]

Thanks to all who have responded so far

I agree that laburnum is a far more likely identity for laurinque than either of the ones metioed if for no other reason than tolkien would have been familar with laburnum but probably not with either of my two. since the cassia is tropical and kolurenia was not a popular tree planting back when tolkein was alive. I would point out however that it would have to be a kind of laburnum which grew to far larger proportions than the current type as the currnet type is too short and spindy to produce wood planks of the size that would be needed for ship building

I did not put pipeweed on the list for the same reason I left out brethel (beech) region (holly) and many other still extant trees, everyone knows thier identites so no speculation could ensue.

I actually did mention lebethron its in the secion on Yavannamire. As I stated my money on some sort of persimmon which would have black wood (i.e. ebony) and which does have finger like leaves.

I have no clue as to what plat Athelas is based on. I though it might be somewhere in the Lamiacae (mint family) since a lot of members of that family are medicinal (including some with the telling name of "heal all") though such mints do not generally have leaves that could be described as long.

I had never heard of that Tolkein letter before thank you for pointing it out. Its intersting that tolkein envisioned a yellow/white pimpernel as being eleanor since european pimpernels usually only come in pale blue or orange (the orange is the famous "scarlet pimpernel" though both are in fact the same species.) I guess tolkein chaged his mind a some point about what niphredel was since he as Imentioned had said elswhere it was a kind of wood anemone (which does not look like a snowdrop at all)

The real problem with getting the identitiy of Alfrin right is that Tolkien seem to have used the same for two different plants. I think based on the context that Tolkein is using Alfirin in its other sense as a synonym for Uilos (as he does in bits of the Silmarillion. If this is the case than it means that evermind is an imortelle (I have now idea what an imortelle is but it think it may be the same thing as a strawflower if tolkien says it's papery) A bellfower is a good guess for the Lebennen alfrin, though it also tends to like shady woods (maybe Lebennen doesn't get a lot of sun)

[Rumil]

Hi all,

nice topic Alfirin, the Middle Earth herblore is rarely touched on apart from Athelas and Elanor.

as a total non-gardener these days (I killed off my last plant in the flat -must get another!) I wonder if you could all post links to pictures of the possible RealWorld(TM) equivalents of the Middle Earth plants? It would help!

Cheers,

[Lalwendë]

Alfirin you must get hold of the book Child mentions, it's really good - not only as a Tolkien book but because it has some great stuff about real world plants.

Tolkien was of course a very keen gardener. This was only intensified during WWII when he had to dig up much of his garden in order to grow veg - the Dig For Victory campaign. One of the many jobs he did around the house and garden at Northmoor Road was to put up a Trellis on the front fence for Edith, with some help from one of his sons (I think....Michael, but will have to look that up). Anyway, I was over at the house last year and while gazing at it suddenly realised - the trellis is still there! This is quite amazing as the house sold for somewhere around one million pounds not long ago and you'd think the first thing the new owner would do is to remove a very weather beaten old trellis, but no! Have to say you could see the owner pottering in his garage - he was a pensioner and had an ancient VW Golf so he certainly was not a Flash Harry. I hope that trellis is protected by law....

But anyway... story over....

One plant I think I can place is Athelas - I'm sure this is a combination drawn from both Comfrey and Mint. The latter of course is well known for releasing fumes in the form of menthol, but the latter is one I'm learning more about as I have too much of it in my own garden - it is a great plant for healing bruises, but it also has incredible properties as a fertiliser apparently, if steeped in a watering can! I've also discovered it has regenerative powers as mine has sprung up again from yearly death after the snails (ugh) bred in it.

As for trees with drooping flower stems - wisteria! The traditional variety has really tough stems with tree-like qualities and it would take the lifetime of an Elf in some cases to see the stuff flower! Grrr!

I am of course an overkeen gardener as davem will tell you - you currently cannot get round my garden due to all the pots in it...cannot resist new plants (especially mystery ones) and now all my seed grown ones are potted out too...

[Alfirin]

I think I've got you beat on obssesive gardening, Lalwende. One of my hobbies is taking the errant "weed seeds" that I find in bags of imported beans and spices that i purcase for cooking and planting the in pots, just so i can see what come up. (pots so they don't get out and spread all over the place). I current have amongs other things a pair of barrels cotaining assorted vetches, and a stump full of bur gourds, wild horned melons assorted african cucumber relatives and a smattering of wild oats. I had wild peas and wild soybeans earlier in the year too but the former have all been harvested and the latter were eaten by squirrels

As to the picture posting I'm afraid i'm not very good at computer functions and getting pictures posted is probably beyond my skills. If you give me a few days I can prably make a list of links to pictures of the plants being discussed and post that if that would be of any use.

I hand though of comfrey for Athelas. What a good idea it's in the daisy family so it would have longish leaves. I think the mintish qualities however are less like common mind and more like those of the more medicnal min realives like pennyroyal or horehound especally becuse Athelas is supposed to smell "wholesome" but not "sweet"

I suppose wisteria might cover some of the hanging white flowers though I'm more used to thinking of that as a vine than a tree and it doesn't really have an odor.

I also have a new one the undietified vine bearing star shaped white flowers which frodo sees growing on the decaptated statue at the crossroads in Ithiilien. My bet its white flowered cypress vine (Imponomea qualicomit) in the morning glory family.

[Lalwendë]

NOt sure where you are, but most Wisteria grown in the UK is strongly scented! This is the lilac flowered variety - grow more than two or three stems of it and it could pull your house down it's so woody. You get some unusual varieties though and there is one in a front garden near my house that has indeed been trained into a tree! A White flowered, non-scented one - this year is the first time it has flowered.

Now there's a kind of Eastern balm or sage that could also be a good candidate for Athelas....but I can't locate the name yet....

EDIT - Found! What I was thinking of was Tulasi or Holy Basil, as used in the Ayurvedic tradition of medicine. Not sure about the leaf shapes but the traditions make it sound appropriate.

[Bêthberry]

First, many thanks to Child for telling us about Dinah Hazell's book. Definitely a must-find! I know of at least one little, independent gardening store that would probably like to add that to its small library of gardening books, which are sold mainly before Christmas in an effort to expand sales beyond the gardening season, which is limited here.

I'm fascinated by the comment quoted in one review, that Hazell refers to "Tolkien as preserver and transmitter of English cultural expression." The Empire might have passed but the empire of cultural hegemony remains? Anyhow, thoughts most likely for another thread.

Of course, letter # 312 raises all kinds of scientific questions--enough that I'm sure alatar could pose another thread as successful as the elven snow prints one! Would Tolkien's comment that those flowers contain a light--the same light that the Simarils trapped, the Light of the Two Trees?--suggest something about the botany of Arda? We know that two trees were elevated above others. Now he suggests that some flowers were, well, closer to the original music than others? Or does all of Middle-earth's plant life sustain this special light, which now for us is gone? What does it mean to extend the special effect of the Two Trees to Two Flowers?

Originally Posted by Alfirin

If this is the case than it means that evermind is an imortelle (I have now idea what an imortelle is but it think it may be the same thing as a strawflower if tolkien says it's papery)

I think what you are describing is called in North America an everlasting.

Originally Posted by Lal

Now there's a kind of Eastern balm or sage that could also be a good candidate for Athelas....but I can't locate the name yet....

EDIT - Found! What I was thinking of was Tulasi or Holy Basil, as used in the Ayurvedic tradition of medicine. Not sure about the leaf shapes but the traditions make it sound appropriate.

There's no telling what Tolkien might have learnt in his study of philology. Who knows what he could have found in his studies of the sources of Indo-European languages. Is there anything in his letters to suggest that in family illness he sought out Ayurvedic traditions of medicine?

[Alfirin]

I think what you are describing is called in North America an everlasting.


YES That is exactly what I meant by a strawflower. This lends strenth that tolkein was refrerring to the Uilos Alfirin as these flowers are not even remotely bell shaped but are star shaped (okay sun shaped but that's pretty close)

I'm actually located in the NE corner of North America so it is quite possible that we are talking about diffent wisterias (I meant the old W. Chinensis) I agree that two or three vines will pull down a house. One on its own has already smothered several trees on my property and another one was recently cut down before it snapped a telephone pole in half!

I agree that tulsi is also a good athelas choice. for the record the leaves are shaped much like convential sweet basil but are grey an a little fuzzy the smell is somewhat liquorice like. It makes a very tasty and relaxing tea. If tsulsi is athelas I am only glad that Tolkein did not add a version of its orgin story to the lore. since the Indian legend of where tutsli came from while interesting is a little on greusome side. (Basically the legend says that the gods honored the first Indian woman who threw herself on her husbands funeral pyre by making tulsi from the charred remains of her hair.) you can find a picture at www.nilacharal.com

okay here's the list as promised


mallow-www.humeseeds.com
lily of the valley-www.merliannews.com
copper beech-www.gardenplansireland.com
wood anemone -www.naturephoto-cz.com
spanish moss -www.crowleymuseumnaturectr.org
white lilac -www.people.cornell.edu
Cassia fistulosa-plants.usda.gov
mingionette-www.artvilla.com
Cinnamon tree-www.comfsm.fm
bay laurel-groups.msn.com
sedum-www.directgardening.com
persimmon tree-The American persimmon tree
ebony-www.sfrc.ufl.edu
laburnumthe-plant-directory.com
Koelreuteria-www.lacity.org (please note corrected spelling)
scarlet pimpernel-www.kenbowles.net
snowdrop-www.valhallagardens.com
bellfower-ppng.home.comcast.net
pennyroyal-www.djroger.com
horehound-kaweahoaks.com
wisteria-www.nps.gov

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I actually did mention lebethron its in the secion on Yavannamire. As I stated my money on some sort of persimmon which would have black wood (i.e. ebony) and which does have finger like leaves.

Persimmon is in fact a true ebony (diospyros). It would be a stretch, though, to find any member of the genus which would grow straight enough for a good staff! Just maybe Macassar ebony (which however is striped). Perhaps one of the darker rosewoods, like African blackwood, or the really old (and unobtainable) nearly-black examples of jacaranda: but then the leaves would be wrong.


Note: Telperion, and thus the White Tree of Gondor, was in the form of a cherry-tree.

[Alfirin]

There's also Australian Blackwood (Acacia Melanoxylon) but that, like the African ebonies in Dalbergia (the rosewoods) is a compound leafed legume and therfore a bit unlikely. Jacaranda(Bignoacae, the trumpet creeper family) is also compound as you noted and thefore not a good choice. Good for noting that persimmon is a true ebony very few people know that! Because of that ebony fruit is actually edible. it's called caca-poule (yest that means exactly what it sound like) or more often now chocolate pudding fruit. One of the things I kick my slef for daily is that i passed on my once chace to buy some of this fruut and hence to have my own ebony tree in a pot for one of the pits. IF you are a UK resident and want to try it about the only place i would gess its obtainable is in the food halls of Harrods and even there only seasonally.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

I agree that tulsi is also a good athelas choice. for the record the leaves are shaped much like convential sweet basil but are grey an a little fuzzy the smell is somewhat liquorice like. It makes a very tasty and relaxing tea. If tsulsi is athelas I am only glad that Tolkein did not add a version of its orgin story to the lore. since the Indian legend of where tutsli came from while interesting is a little on greusome side. (Basically the legend says that the gods honored the first Indian woman who threw herself on her husbands funeral pyre by making tulsi from the charred remains of her hair.)

Well, that is even more fascinating, given Arwen's death. Granted she does not exactly throw herself on her husband's funeral pyre and we do have that monument to the madness of self-immolation in the macabre steward. However, it is true that Aragorn's death produces a depression in her that removes her will or desire to remain living. She withdraws from her children, from Gondor, and from life and dies upon the green hill which is the monument to hers and Aragorn's love. It is a green byre, if I may be allowed to play upon bower and pyre. Emotionally or psychologically, there are similarities with the tulasi tale.

[Fordim Hedgethistle]

I know that technically mushrooms aren't plants, but I've always been a little curious as to what kind of mushrooms Hobbits have available, and more particularly which variety or varieties Farmer Maggot gives Frodo.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Alfirin

I agree that tulsi is also a good athelas choice. for the record the leaves are shaped much like convential sweet basil but are grey an a little fuzzy the smell is somewhat liquorice like. It makes a very tasty and relaxing tea.

Sorry that I didn't do this sooner, but 'Welcome to the Downs, Alfirin!' Must been all them lab fumes gone to my head and all.

Anyway, found a list of plants with medicinal uses - not too hard to do - when trying to find one with analgesic properties similar to those of athelas. Sure, it takes a king's hand to get the full effect of the plant, but methinks that this is mostly legend. There's the whole placebo effect, meaning that just by being in the presence of the King (Aragorn or Elvis) was temporarily therapeutic in itself, and/or the King carefully cherry-picked those cases in which his 'healing hands' would have the greatest PR effect.

"Sire, there're injured here. One poor soldier with no arm, and another with a case of the Black Breath."

"Sorry, but I little time. Bring athelas - kingsfoil - to room #2 and I'll see what I can do."

Was watching my favorite show the other night Man vs Wild where Bear Grylls was escaping the Amazon. He'd cut himself - minor- but showed how one could use the blood red sap of a particular tree as an antiseptic. The other name for Croton draco is Dragon's Blood. The simbelmynë-like scions of Smaug's kind perhaps?

[Lalwendë]

Trees need roots eh? Try telling my old Gaffer that. He had a few of his old Willows blow down in a storm a few years back. He chopped them up and stacked the wood, then a while later decided to use it to make a new fence.

It grew.

[Alfirin]

Alatar, If they did they must have left a lot of them as there are dozens of plants called "dragons blood" most famously Draceana draco (www.mgonlinestore.com) the dragons blood of medicine and violin manufacture. As a warning I would also point out not to go smearing croton sap on you wounds unless you know what you are doing as Croton is in the Spurge family (Euphobiacae) most of whose members are famous (or more acurately infamous) for having unbelivablly corrosive sap.

by the way check out this plant www.infojardin.com. Its called Chiranthodendron pentadactylon or in common name hand flower, anyone think that this could be a vegitative remmenent of Saruman's legacy?

I'm not surpised your grandfather's (that is what gaffer means right?) williow fence took root and grew. Willow is famous for doing that. It's one of the main reasons whiy some cultures used williow trees as symbols of immortality and resurrection.

By the way a though ocurred to me with regards to wether a true ebony could yield a piece of wood staight and large enough to yield a staff of hobbit size. As I recall an ebony staff is the badge of office of the so called "Black Rod", the king or queen's liason to Parliament. However never having seen a Parilamentary opeing I have no idea as to how large this staff is. If any of our UK members are here and have perhaps they could enlightent us. If it really is a full size staff that would prove that a solid ebony walking stick could at least be possible.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Of course, letter # 312 raises all kinds of scientific questions--enough that I'm sure alatar could pose another thread as successful as the elven snow prints one! Would Tolkien's comment that those flowers contain a light--the same light that the Simarils trapped, the Light of the Two Trees?--suggest something about the botany of Arda? We know that two trees were elevated above others. Now he suggests that some flowers were, well, closer to the original music than others? Or does all of Middle-earth's plant life sustain this special light, which now for us is gone? What does it mean to extend the special effect of the Two Trees to Two Flowers?

It had always been a dream of mine to see the Two Trees, Telperion and Laurelin. That not being possible, I once years ago considered making my own (when you study molecular and cellular biology, you tend to think thus, having glimpsed a few bars of Eru's song book.). In the lab we used luciferase to determine the amount of ATP (read 'cell's energy') in some reaction. You'd mix the stuff in a tube, give a laugh like, "Heh heh heh," (scientists are required to do this to continue the stereotype that we're all mad) then watch the contents glow. Also, as a matter of practice, and I'm sure that school children are now doing the same, we would cut and splice pieces of DNA into these little loops then trick bacteria into sucking them in and mass-producing our DNA (note that this was BP - before Polymerase Chain Reaction).

It occurred to me that the same fun could be used to get other organisms to make luciferase (would that be considered doing the Devil's handiwork?), taking the gene from a firefly and using retroviruses to lock it into the host's DNA. The host then would churn out the bioluminescent substrate and all would be bliss - unless that killed the host. My idea was to get shrubbery to do this, then one could light one's walkway without a bulb in sight. Actually watched people add genes to individual mice cells in order to make transgenic mice, so newer methods are available, but...

My professor, long suffering, countered my enthusiasm as he knew that I hadn't considered the energy requirements. Even if it were possible to have a shrub glow, how much ATP would it take to keep the thing going - scientists can be such killjoys. Trees, like a maple, produce a sweet sap that can end up on flapjakes, and so my counter counter was that if these trees could go on living after being tapped to make my breakfast syrup, then surely they could glow if we left them their sap. Also, some plants actually ate bugs, such as the Venus Fly Trap, and so that could also be the added ATP source.

It was then decided that I should get back to work as neither of us dealt with plant cells, and there were human cell lines to be cultured, and my professor always started to worry when I was outlining my plan for designing large carnivorous glowing trees (formerly I had a similar plan to get them walking, but that too required too much energy).

Anyway, while I dreamed away of one day seeing a glowing tree, nature was working on its own version, which, demonstrating that hobbits do rule, ended up being, of all things, a mushroom.

Anyway, if someone wants to take the idea and run with it - have at it, just give me an acknowledgment and let me know how fast I need run.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

ATP- isn't that the stuff behind firefly lights?

[Lalwendë]

So what Alatar actually was trying to bio-engineer was a mad combo of Telperion-Ent-Old Man Willow?

Or, errr, a Triffid.

[alatar]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hickli

ATP- isn't that the stuff behind firefly lights?

Think that that's the luciferase, which is powered by adenosine 5'-triphosphate - ATP ("ATP is the main energy source for the majority of cellular functions."). It's pretty ubiquitous. My friend used to joke that wouldn't it be cool to drink a glass of ATP; the closest we came was drinking Mountain Dew syrup (no water). Don't try that at home.

Originally Posted by Lalwendë

So what Alatar actually was trying to bio-engineer was a mad combo of Telperion-Ent-Old Man Willow?

Guess that the good thing in that combination is that light travels faster than sound, so you'd see'm coming before he caught you with his singing.

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

Having recently had the sad misfortune to watch a 125 year old oak felled because of structural damage in a storm, I can say that roots are integral to a fully functioning tree. In fact, even once the trunk was sawn off, the stump persisted in pumping up/out sap/water for the now-nonexistent tree.

My thumb is black, not green, but I heard that many plants/trees store up a lot of 'food' in their roots for the winter, which dictates when you can safely prune a tree - not sure when that is.

Which raises an interesting point about ents. If roots are the 'heart' of a tree, pumping the essential life fluid through all the limbs, what fulfils that function in ents? Or are their feet hairy, like hobbit feet, but hairy with roots, which can immediately dig down into the earth once an ent stops walking? Or have ents developed a sort of secondary heart where their limbs meet at the trunk, which ensures the free flow of sap? I recall some dinosaurs actually had second brains to control the movement of their tail...

Again, my 'specialty' was human biology, and things smaller than a cell, but thought that trees 'pump' fluid by a process called transpiration, which sounds a lot like you think it might. Water kinda 'sweats out' the leaves, and this mini-vacuum draws water from the roots upward. Heard that this is a pretty important thing as if it weren't available, plants would be very flat.

Treebeard may or may not have a physical heart. He may use transpiration. My question, getting back to my mad days, is what exactly does he eat? Plants do not move because via photosynthesis they don't make a whole lot of 'food.' Another mad idea was to add chlorophyll to human skin cells so that when you're vacationing at the beach you could skip an over-priced meal or two. But that same professor made me figure out how much energy it took to walk, and how much is gathered from the sun via chlorophyll, and the answer is that you'd still need to eat - and having that green tinge to your skin, nobody would order the same dish.

Anyway, I can see Treebeard drinking most of his energy requirements (think that it would be 'heavy' even for a hobbit's taste), but can't see him setting down roots with every footfall as Ents walk just too fast.

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by alatar

My professor, long suffering, countered my enthusiasm as he knew that I hadn't considered the energy requirements. Even if it were possible to have a shrub glow, how much ATP would it take to keep the thing going - scientists can be such killjoys. Trees, like a maple, produce a sweet sap that can end up on flapjakes, and so my counter counter was that if these trees could go on living after being tapped to make my breakfast syrup, then surely they could glow if we left them their sap. . . . and my professor always started to worry when I was outlining my plan for designing large carnivorous glowing trees (formerly I had a similar plan to get them walking, but that too required too much energy).

Anyway, while I dreamed away of one day seeing a glowing tree, nature was working on its own version, which, demonstrating that hobbits do rule, ended up being, of all things, a mushroom.

Having recently had the sad misfortune to watch a 125 year old oak felled because of structural damage in a storm, I can say that roots are integral to a fully functioning tree. In fact, even once the trunk was sawn off, the stump persisted in pumping up/out sap/water for the now-nonexistent tree.

Which raises an interesting point about ents. If roots are the 'heart' of a tree, pumping the essential life fluid through all the limbs, what fulfils that function in ents? Or are their feet hairy, like hobbit feet, but hairy with roots, which can immediately dig down into the earth once an ent stops walking? Or have ents developed a sort of secondary heart where their limbs meet at the trunk, which ensures the free flow of sap? I recall some dinosaurs actually had second brains to control the movement of their tail...

[William Cloud Hicklin]

This is the sort of fantasy conception that doesn't really bear strict scrutiny- like flying, talking, firebreathing dragons- but I'm not sure Tolkien really envisioned Ents as animated trees, i.e. made of wood. Rereading the initial description of Treebeard one gets the impression of a flesh-and-blood troll-like creature that *looks* tree-ish, like a walking-stick insect on a much larger scale.