In the French Revolutionary Calendar, today was the Day of Heliotrope. 10 things you might not know about heliotrope.
The word heliotrope means to turn toward the Sun, as this is what the plant appears to do. An old word for heliotrope is “Turnsole,” which means the same thing.
Other nicknames include the “flower of love” and “cherry pie” because of its sweet fragrance, which is said to fight fatigue.
The plant is native to Peru. It found its way to Europe thanks to Joseph de Juissieu, a French doctor and botanist who discovered it in the Peruvian Andes during a scientific expedition in 1735.
There are 325 species in the genus Heliotropium.
The origin of heliotrope according to Greek myth is told in the story of Clytie, a nymph who was so hopelessly in love with the God Helios (Apollo) that she spent her entire time gazing at him and pining away because he didn’t love her back. Helios finally turned her into a flower.
All parts of the plant are toxic to cats, dogs and humans.
In the language of flowers, heliotrope represents devotion, to lovers or to a God or a cause.
Place heliotrope under your pillow at night and you might have a dream relating to finding lost things or people. To dream of heliotrope means unrequited love.
The flower’s name has lent itself to a shade of pink/purple. The coloured pencils on Tyrone Slothrop’s desk in Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow include the “hard-to-get heliotrope.” The word has also been used for the mineral bloodstone.
One of the most famous ragtime piano melodies is Heliotrope Bouquet, composed in 1907 by Louis Chauvin and Scott Joplin.
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