Fringed puccoon
Click for greater clarity and size.
Here’s another wildflower taking its first bow in this column, Lithospermum incisum, known as fringed puccoon. I made this photograph on a visit to Kathy Comer’s property in Williamson County on March 17. The only other local wildflower I can think of that’s as crinkled, though in quite a different way, is the white prickly poppy.
Fringed puccoon grows over large parts of North America, as you can confirm on the state-clickable map at the USDA website.
© 2012 Steven Schwartzman
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The daily posts that you’ve become accustomed to will continue while I’m away from Austin. Feel free to comment if you like, but please be aware that I may not be able to answer for a while.
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Not only have you brought us a new flower, there’s a new word attached! “Puccoon” made me laugh – I see it may be rooted in the Algonquian “pocone” and can refer to the brim of a woman’s bonnet. Another source mentioned the Middle English for “bag” or “sack”. Both meanings seem just fine for this lovely flower.
shoreacres
June 29, 2012 at 7:01 AM
The American Heritage Dictionary, whose etymologies I take to be the most accurate of those in any dictionary, says that puccoon is indeed of Virginia Algonquian origin. The original word, which conveyed the notion of redness, is also found in the poke of pokeweed, which has reddish-purple berries. In the case of puccoon, the roots yield a red dye. As for the woman’s bonnet and the bag, I don’t know what the connection might be, unless they happened to be red.
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2012 at 7:20 AM
I presumed the bonnet link might have been because the fringed brim of bonnets like those my grandma wore in the garden “poke out” to shade the face.
shoreacres
June 29, 2012 at 7:25 AM
Gorgeous!
montucky
July 2, 2012 at 12:32 AM
Just goes to show what crinkled can be when it wants to.
Steve Schwartzman
July 2, 2012 at 6:13 AM
Lovely flower, great name.
Finn Holding
July 4, 2012 at 3:45 PM
Agreed on both counts.
Steve Schwartzman
July 4, 2012 at 7:38 PM