Leijpark013

@leijpark013 · 22 Jun 2021

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Leijpark 013 June 22, 2021 Grote pimpernel.

Leij park 013
Listing by Thierry P. Dinjens · Yesterday at 6:03 PM ·
Plant names are often confusing, especially if the same names are used abroad, albeit for other plants. To illustrate this we start today with a classic adventure novel, written in England in 1903, initially as a play: The Scarlet Pimpernel (the red pimpernel, literally translated). The book talks about an English nobleman who lets French aristocrats escape from their own country right after the French Revolution. At that time, many French nobles were brought to the guillotine because of their dissolute lifestyle and oppression of the poor. The Scarlet Pimpernel was a kind of Robin Hood of Zorro, who freed them while his identity remained unknown. With every escape, he left a ticket with a flower: the scarlet pimpernel. So the hero of the story got his nickname. However, if we look at the book cover of this glorious heroic epic, we see a red flower, but it does not look like what we call the pimpernel. 'Scarlet pimpernel' is the English name for a completely different plant: red guicheheil.
We encounter the plant that is the pimpernel for us in the Leijpark, more specifically the Great Pimpernel. Now there is no English folk hero named after this plant, the plant has been very important throughout history and still in some regions. Already in ancient times, the plant was used as a so-called blood plant; the juices in the plant have blood clotting. And there's an incredible amount of blood flowing at that time. After all, every conflict was settled with the arms. There was not, as it is now, a committee was set up for a majority vote. No, the sword was girded, the helmet set up and hoppa: there the nobles, peasants and civilians go back into battle to get out battered again. How convenient is it that there is a plant that stops all this bleeding and also has anti-inflammatory effect?? Wound healing at the time was the best way not to succumb to your injuries and at the same time it maintained wars; those who heal quickly can get an ax or dagger in the hands with the command: “Back the battle field in you, you feel a lot better.!”
Big pimpernel quickly became a 'kitchen herb'. The leaf tastes a bit cucumber and smells like walnuts. A delicious seasoning in the soup and the plant contains quite a lot of vitamin C.
The word 'pimpernel' comes from 'pipernel' (Piper is Latin for pepper) as the seeds resemble pepper seeds.
In the Leijpark, the Grote pimpernel attracts bees. Honey bees, which we can't have enough, but especially sandbees, digging corridors in the sand in which they lay their eggs.
The Great Pimpernel is the host plant (the plant on which eggs are laid and whose caterpillars eat) of the pimpernel blue. This is an extremely rare butterfly that no longer existed in our country since 1970, until it was re-introduced to the Moerputten, a nature reserve west of 's-Hertogenbosch in 1990. Whether it has spread from there is the question, which depends on many factors and an important factor is the presence of Great Pimpernel. Who knows, “our” pimpernel will soon be a hero, as she saves a very rare butterfly from downfall. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, so the Big Pimpernel is sure to have a chance.
Whether the butterfly actually ever pops up in the Leijpark, the Grote pimpernel cannot tell us of course; that's what we have Henk de Winter's all-seeing eye for. Ahead of potentially very good news, he probably picked the Great Pimpernel for you. A plant that has served great interests over the years. We award it the butterfly that has room for one more interest.