weeds and wildflowers (was Re: Eggcorn?)

[Wilson Gray]

On May 17, 2005, at 2:18 PM, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      weeds and wildflowers (was Re: Eggcorn?)
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> On May 17, 2005, at 11:07 AM, Wilson Gray wrote:
>
>> ... I was hurt to see my beloved Southern
>> honeysuckle derided in a Northern news article as an "invasive weed."
>> On the other hand, I was shocked to see that no less a company than
>> Burpee sells morning-glory seeds. There are people willing to pay for
>> *morning-glory* seeds?! What's next? People buying jimson-weed seeds?!
>
> well, there are lots of things called "morning glory", in at least
> the genera Ipomoea (which includes most cultivated morning glories,
> among them Ipomoea tricolor, with its gorgeous, and best-selling,
> variety 'Heavenly Blue') and Convolvulus (which includes the ghastly
> wild bindweed Convolvulus arvensis, with its nearly ineradicable
> underground runners).
>
> as for jimsonweeds, there are many cultivated species of Brugmansia
> (also known as Datura), with gorgeous flowers, many with wonderful
> fragrance.  i used to grow some of them in ohio.
>
> arnold
>

Bindweed! Ugh! I know it only too well.

I don't know morning glory except as a common weed, though one with a
nice-looking flower, that covered back-alley fences in St. Louis.

By coincidence - I once worked in a botany laboratory - I do know that
what I have in mind as "jimson weed" is - or was, in the '50's -
specifically Datura stromonium. At the time, I used to wonder why it
was considered a weed, given the beauty of its blossoms. Maybe I've
just been fortunate not to have lived anywhere that jimson weed grows
wild. The fragrance of stromonium is rather rank, but there are lilies
that don't look any better and that smell just about as rank. IAC, I'm
pleased to learn that there are cultivated versions.

-Wilson