Ivy (Hedera helix) – ‘helix’ means ‘twisted’ or ‘spiral’
Dear Readers, what a splendid crop of answers we had this week: Claire, Mal from FEARN, Rosalind Atkins, Anne and Fran and Bobby Freelove all proved their mettle with a score of 12 out of 12, well done to all of you – you were undefeated by Latin binomials, and there was a fine discussion about the merits of scientific names over on my Facebook page, for those of you who indulge. Suffice it to say that much as we love vernacular names, we can all see the value of having a name for each species that’s recognised across regions and countries.
Let’s see what I can come up with for tomorrow.
Species Name and Meaning
J) Officinalis means a traditional healing plant
E) Verna means ‘of the spring’
K) Rupestre means ‘wall or rock-loving’
F) Sativa means ‘found on cultivated land’
L) Pratense means ‘meadow-loving’.
H) Sylvestris means ‘found in forests/woods’
A) Repens means ‘creeping’
B) Palustre/palustris means ‘found in marshes and bogs’
C) Corniculata means ‘horned’ (the seed capsules of plants named ‘corniculata’ often have two tiny horns on them
G) Lutea means ‘yellow’ as in Yellow Corydalis, Pseudofumaria lutea.
Dear Readers, firstly very well done to everyone who took part this week: Claire, Joanna and Fran and Bobby Freelove all got a perfect 12/12 for their feather identification so a big round of applause is coming your way from East Finchley. I shall have to dream up something devilish for tomorrow, you’re all getting much too good.
And secondly, I hope that you enjoyed looking at these feathers as much as I did – they are miracles of adaptation and evolution, and differ so much from species to species, according to the bird’s requirements. They all come from the Featherbase website – links to the individual photos are at the bottom of the post. It is a most extraordinary resource, and I’m very glad to have found it!
Dear Readers, we only had one ‘team’ playing this week, the magnificent Fran and Bobby Freelove, who got a splendid 12 out of 12 on this rather difficult quiz. Well done Fran and Bobby! And let’s see what I can come up with tomorrow.
1) Spring crocus (Crocus vernus) I. Which plant is supposed to have arisen from the body of a young man accidentally slain by a discus?
2) Squill (Scilla siberica) J. The genus name for which plant means ‘to injure or to harm’, referring to the poisonous nature of some members of the genus?
3) Wood Sorrel (Oxalis acetosella) D. Which plant has leaves that fold up when it rains?
4) Oxlip (Primula elatior) K. Which plant was long thought to be a hybrid of the primrose and the cowslip, until this was disproved by Henry Doubleday, one of the pioneers of the organic movement?
5) Spring snowflake (Leucojum vernum) H. Which plant is also known as the Loddon Lily?
6) Winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) L. Which plant, also known as ‘choirboys’, is said to only grow where the blood of the ancient Romans has been spilled?
7) Lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) A. Which of these spring ephemerals was Wordsworth’s favourite plant?
8) English Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) B. The species name of which plant means ‘unlettered’, to distinguish it from the hyacinth which is said to have the letters ‘AI’ inscribed on its petals?
9) Common Dog Violet (Viola riviniana) E. The name of which plant denotes an inferior species?
10) Cowslip (Primula veris) C. Which plant is said to spring from cowpats and to smell slightly of apricots?
11) Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) G. Avid collectors of which plant are known as galanthophiles?
12) Wood anemone (Anemone nemerosa) F. Which plant is called ‘The Flower of Death’ by the Chinese because of its pale, ghostly appearance?
Dear Readers, you might recognise these photos from my quiz a few weeks ago, but this week I want to intrigue you with some trivia about each plant. Can you match the trivia to the photo?
As usual, you’ll have until 5 p.m. UK time on Friday 4th March to get your answers in the comments – I’ll ‘disappear’ them as soon as I see them. Answers will be published on Saturday 5th March and, unlike for the past two weeks, I’ll actually attempt to get the scores in the post as well.
All you have to do is match the fact to the photo, and it’s job done! So if you think the Spring Crocus was Wordsworth’s favourite flower, your answer is A) 1.
Onwards!
Facts
A. Which of these spring ephemerals was Wordsworth’s favourite plant?
B. The species name of which plant means ‘unlettered’, to distinguish it from the hyacinth which is said to have the letters ‘AI’ inscribed on its petals?
C. Which plant is said to spring from cowpats and to smell slightly of apricots?
D. Which plant has leaves that fold up when it rains?
E. The name of which plant denotes an inferior species?
F. Which plant is called ‘The Flower of Death’ by the Chinese because of its pale, ghostly appearance?
G. Avid collectors of which plant are known as galanthophiles?
H. Which plant is also known as the Loddon Lily?
I. Which plant is supposed to have arisen from the body of a young man accidentally slain by a discus?
J. The genus name for which plant means ‘to injure or to harm’, referring to the poisonous nature of some members of the genus?
K. Which plant was long thought to be a hybrid of the primrose and the cowslip, until this was disproved by Henry Doubleday, one of the pioneers of the organic movement?
L. Which plant, also known as ‘choirboys’, is said to only grow where the blood of the ancient Romans has been spilled?
Dear Readers, for some reason (probably author incompetence 🙁 ) the acknowledgement of everyone’s brilliance last week wasn’t published, so here it is now, and congratulations to all of you! And apologies!
Dear Readers, what a splendid selection of answers! Claire got a very creditable 8/10 (just a teeny tiny mix-up on the small raptors), and Mike from Alittlebitoutoffocus, Rosalind and Mark and Fran and Bobby Freelove all got a perfect 10 out of 10. Well done to all of you, and thanks to everyone for playing. I feel something weather-related coming on for Sunday 🙂 seeings as the wind from Storm Eunice which is racketing around outside as I write this is enough to blow anyone’s tiara off 🙂
Dear Readers, for some reason (probably author incompetence 🙁 ) the acknowledgement of everyone’s brilliance last week wasn’t published, so here it is now, and congratulations to all of you! And apologies!
Dear Readers, what a splendid selection of answers! Claire got a very creditable 8/10 (just a teeny tiny mix-up on the small raptors), and Mike from Alittlebitoutoffocus, Rosalind and Mark and Fran and Bobby Freelove all got a perfect 10 out of 10. Well done to all of you, and thanks to everyone for playing. I feel something weather-related coming on for Sunday 🙂 seeings as the wind from Storm Eunice which is racketing around outside as I write this is enough to blow anyone’s tiara off 🙂
Dear Readers, this turned out to be much more difficult than I expected (but of course it’s always easy when you know the answers :-)). Fran and Bobby Freelove and Claire both tied on matching the descriptions to the birds, with 6 out of 10 each, but Claire also named some of the birds so I am going to make Claire our winner this week. Well done Claire! Let’s see what I can come up for for Sunday’s quiz.
Descriptions
Compensates for size by noisy and overwrought personality. Unexpectedly loud song explodes from near ground level, a hurried jumble of sweet liquid notes, including a jarring trill mid-phrase, overall like excitable commentator enthusing over finish of race.
D) Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)
2. Has a red-hot sex life in which both males and females may hold multiple mates, with fractious consequences.
I) Dunnock (Prunella modularis)
3) Parents feed large broods (average 10+) for 2 weeks, making 1000 visits a day carrying caterpillars.
F) Blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)
4) Cheerful chiming song, a much varying repetition of two notes TEEcher, TEEcher, can be heard everywhere from late Dec until May.
A) Great Tit (Parus major)
5) Very common mite of woodland and scrub, now increasingly visiting gardens, where it feeds from hanging feeders. Bands of 5-10 relatives spend autumn and winter patrolling large territory, where individuals feed in branches for just a few moments before moving on to the next tree, one after another, always restlessly passing through.
C) Long-tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus)
6) Forages on lawns or fields for worms, standing still for a few moments, then making scampering runs forward to grab prey, or stand watchful again: may also make 2-footed hops forward.
B) Blackbird (Turdus merula)
7) Makes monotonous 3-note cooing in rhythm of football chant U-NIII-ted; also calls after alighting, a curious mewing with tone of party trumpet.
G) Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)
8) Flight display in straight line: bird rises with wing flaps, stalls as if shot, glides down. When landing, raises tail and slowly drops it.
Gazpacho – a chilled Spanish tomato soup (Title Photo)
Dear Readers, now that winter is here, is there anything nicer than a big bowl of soup? It’s a great way of getting more vegetables into your diet, and also for using up produce that’s getting towards the end of its shelf life. Here in the UK we apparently threw away 9.5 million tonnes of food waste last year. My grandmother would have found that unfathomable. All over the world, people eat soup as a celebration, and as an everyday way of getting nutritious food into their stomachs. Plus, it’s a well-known fact ( by me at least) that if you eat soup, you’re likely to eat less of other things because it’s very filling.
So, for this week’s quiz, I’d like you to match the soup in each of the photos to its name, and where it originated. To help you, I am going to name the main ingredients under each photograph (though I do appreciate that there are many regional variations for some of these dishes, so bear with me!)
You will have until 5 p.m. UK time next Friday (21st January) to submit your answers in the comments. When I see your answers I will ‘disappear’ them, but as usual write your answers down first if you don’t want to be influenced by those who came before. Answers will be published on Saturday 22nd January.
So, if you think Photo One is Vichyssoise, and that it’s from Scotland, your answer is 1)A) i).
Onwards!
1) Bread, kale, beans, tomato
2) Leeks, potatoes, cream
3) Beetroot, dill, sour cream
4) Rice, lemon, egg
5) Smoked haddock, potatoes, cream
6) Dried fruit (apples in this case but could be cloudberries, lingonberries or other fruit)
7) Many variations, but always includes tamarind
8) Tomato, lentils and other beans, rice, small amounts of meat, spices such as saffron.
9) Kale, potato, chorizo
10) Shrimp, andouille sausage, often with okra, thickened with a dark roux
Dear Readers, the quiz was a tie this week, with Claire and Fran and Bobby Freelove both getting 7 out of 10, so well done to Claire, Fran and Bobby, and thank you to everyone for playing the quizzes so diligently all year.
Now, for Christmas this year I am trying something different. Every day between Christmas Day and January 5th, I am going to do a post on the general theme of the Twelve Days of Christmas (though some days will be more closely related to the song than others). Every day, there will be one related question (though I reserve the right to do multiple parts 🙂 ). I will post the links to previous days every day too, so you don’t have to interrupt your Christmas pudding or New Year champagne to have a go. On Twelfth Night (5th January) I will do a recap of the whole quiz.
You will have until January 7th to complete the quiz, and I would like you to post all your answers at once after the final quiz on January 5th, rather than day by day, just to make things a bit simpler to keep track of.
So, thinking caps on! We start on Christmas Day!
Question One
This is a wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)
Question Two
What sex is this holly bush?
This is female – only female bushes bear berries (holly has separate male and female plants)
Holly berries by the River Lagan by Albert Bridge
Question Three
If you saw this bee buzzing about in the autumn, which Christmassy plant is likely to be nearby?
This is an ivy bee (Colletes hedarae) so I would expect there to be some flowering ivy nearby.
Photo by Charles Sharp
Question Four
The world record for the number of brussels sprouts eaten in one minute is held by Linus Urbanec of Sweden. How many did he eat?
31, each one eaten raw and picked up with a cocktail stick.
Question Five
Which popular Christmas vegetable was so liked by the Roman Emperor Tiberius that he accepted it as part of the tribute paid to Rome by Germany?
The parsnip.
Question Six
Why is a robin called a ‘red breast’ when it’s actually closer to the colour orange?
Because the word for ‘orange’ only appeared in the English Language in 1502, and wouldn’t become popular as a description of the colour until the 1570s when William of Orange came to power in Europe. Before this, many orange things were either called ‘red’ or ‘reddish-yellow’.
Question Seven
Which unfortunate bird was hunted on St Stephen’s Day in Ireland and on the Isle of Man until recent times?
The wren
Question Eight
What Christmas animal makes this sound?
The reindeer – the clicks are tendons in the animals’ legs’.
Question Nine
Which is the only nut (much loved at Christmas) that contains significant amounts of Vitamin C?
The chestnut
Question Ten
And finally, which Christmas bird is making these sounds (and why are you unlikely to hear them these days?)
The grey partridge (Perdix perdix), which has declined in numbers and is now on the RSPB’s red list for endangered birds.
Hi lovely people, well with typical brilliance I posted these answers (briefly) on the wrong day, but here they are for real. Who would guess that this simple little quiz would throw up so many varied answers? However, as usual everyone did extremely well. Claire got 21 1/2 out of 32, Sharon got 27 out of 32, but the joint winners this week are Anne and Fran and Bobby Freelove with 30 out of 32. I struggled a little to be fair with the answer to number 12, where both Anne and Fran and Bobby looked at the plant rather than the bee sitting on it :-). As I’d said that there were 8 ‘black’ answers and 8 ‘white’ answers (and for once I hadn’t messed up the count) I decided to disallow the answer of ‘black knapweed’ though I can see exactly why it was chosen. Anyhow, let’s see what’s coming tomorrow. I’m starting to feel in a Christmassy mood, so who knows 🙂
