[lit-ideas] Re: Hereabouts
- From: epostboxx@xxxxxxxx
- To: Lit-Ideas <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2017 22:53:44 +0200
On 4. Jun 2017, at 20:14, david ritchie <profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I thought it would be good to open, “bits of cottonwood drifted above Hamish
like the first snows of summer.” But that awkward metaphorical stretch
opened a whole can of worms. What are the “bits” actually called? Seeds, I
suppose, but I bet there’s a fancy botanical name.
I quote:
"The fruit [of trees of the Populus genus] is a two- to four-valved dehiscent
capsule, green to reddish-brown, mature in midsummer, containing numerous
minute light brown seeds surrounded by tufts of long, soft, white hairs which
aid wind dispersal.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populus
It seems that unopened seed capsules have the 'fancy botanical name’, but the
‘bits’ you are writing about would be the “minute light brown seeds surrounded
by tufts of long, soft, white hairs” (or, elsewhere
[
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populus_tremula], “tiny seeds embedded in downy ;
fluff”) which emerge after the dehiscent capsules have broken open.
Chris Bruce, in
Kiel, Germany.
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