What is this ?

[chrisdb]

I have that Alkanet all over my garden - hard to get rid of.

Agreed, it's a weed. The flowers look nice I guess, but then you've got to put up with it for the rest of the year.

[MyWifesBrassicas]

I don't know the lack of education these days is shocking :-)

from Old Spanish alcaneta, diminutive of alcana, "henna", from Medieval Latin alchanna, from Arabic al-ḥinnā', "henna" : al-: "the" + ḥinnā', "henna".

so in essence Alkanet = Al henna = the henna

when people were mostly illiterate words went by sounds not spelling.


How easily did a "narange" from Spanish become an orange in English for example ? - when most people had never seen the word written down.

"Originally from South and East Asia, oranges were known in Sanskrit as naranga. This became the Persian narang, which became the Arabic naranj. Arabic traders brought oranges to Spain, which led to the Spanish naranja"

Great info

[nickdub]

Watched a bit of "Victorian Farm" being repeated on BBC, episode 3 has a little bit on making some red lip balm out of alkanet roots and some fat of some kind - wasn't watching too closely.

[DannyK]

Mods will delete what I call it! It's a pig to get rid of. Pretty but very deep woody roots. Not sure if it returns if any root left behind. A candidate for weedkiller or very careful digging.

[Babru]

Hairy leaves gave me a rash when I tried pulling it out, so I'd recommend gloves to handle it.

I'd also pull it out as soon as you see it appear, otherwise it develops a great tap root which is a bummer to dig out. Trouble is, early on it looks a bit like a foxglove, so I've left it longer than I ought not realising. It has slightly spotted leaves, so I can tell the difference quite quickly now. A horrible plant in my opinion.

[DannyK]

Babru, glad to see I'm not the only one who thought they were foxgloves. Must do some more detailed study of leaves.

[Mitzi]

Mine appeared right in the middle of a clump of lysimachia (vulgaris, I think.) The alkanet flowers early so gives interest (and the bees love it) in spring, and now the lysimachia has grown up and hides the tatty remnants of the alkanet. I'll be keeping it, but will try to identify and remove any that appear elsewhere.

Thanks for the mistaken id (foxglove) warning - there are a couple of what I thought were foxglove seedlings close to it - I'll have to double check them. How do you tell the difference?

[nickdub]

Mine appeared right in the middle of a clump of lysimachia (vulgaris, I think.) The alkanet flowers early so gives interest (and the bees love it) in spring, and now the lysimachia has grown up and hides the tatty remnants of the alkanet. I'll be keeping it, but will try to identify and remove any that appear elsewhere.

Thanks for the mistaken id (foxglove) warning - there are a couple of what I thought were foxglove seedlings close to it - I'll have to double check them. How do you tell the difference?

Off hand I'd say alkanet leaves are a bit more prickly, where as fox gloves have more downy sort of hair on their leaves.

[Babru]

Agree with nick dub, if you brush the leaves I think it should be obvious. I agree the flowers are a brilliant blue. I liked them myself, and in the right place they are fine. (Not my garden though...!) If you deadhead rigorously you should be okay, otherwise it seeds very readily.

[Mitzi]

You are both correct; the alkanet is kind of bristly. The foxgloves are more velvety. The seedlings I thought were foxgloves are, indeed, foxgloves. Happy days.