Category: #8
Deirdre Fraser-Gudrunas
I spend most of my days in intimate relationship with plants. I am currently thinking about the common names of plants, why they acquire the names that they do, what they might be called in other languages and our relationship to history through these names. Common names are presumed to come from common people, ironically in the ages before literacy became widespread — so they would have been names that were very specific to an area. Sometimes the names seem arbitrary (they are certainly arbitrary to the plant) and other times convey information about it. I have come up with a list of imaginary common names of real plants that I know (or perhaps don’t know), in the spirit of Leo Lionni’s Parallel Botany, an absurdist field guide. I have found these new names in the process of working, out in the field touching and gathering the plants that I am familiar with. Just as Antares (the protagonist in Reto Pulfer’s piece for this instalment of Out of Focus) adapts to every environment and proliferates himself everywhere by mirroring, common weeds ask: do names allow a thing to be known, or not alone?
Uncommon Names
Plowman
Milknut
Problem Flower
Tiller’s Leaf
Inkfern
Whisper Grass
Dropsy Root
Cow’s Pepper
Globewort
Moon of Florence
Ruinweed
The Sigh
Scorch-dock
Scarlet Willow
Topeka Brier
Joke Poppy
Loneseed
Broom Oil
Dreambane
Mending Grass
Queen of Malady
Hat Reed
Blue Crab-orchid
Dagger Lily
Chimera Mandrake
August Strawberry
Helix Moss
Scrollbark
False Spoonberry
Bastard Oak
Scape-thicket
Lambskin
Crinoline Sumac
Mercy rose
Alimony
Brookblite
Hiccup-herb
Sea Tomato
Night Pansy
Womb-ease
Wild Cornseed
Skunkshield
Lazy Clover
Oracle poppy
Frill
Chrushgum tree
Blood Tobacco
Sphinx Trillium
Wellowman
Chocolate Balm
Dusty Farmer
Marsh Cotton
Spidrona
Sally’s Rocket
Lightning Mustard
Goosehook
Sing-song
Cringe Lettuce
Yukon Tea
Drought Vine
Grass of Many Colors
Barber’s Comb
Adderleaf
Royal Agony
Limona
Bitter Molewort
Winesap
Quasi-maple
Birdsberry
Cateye
Brittlebreak
Switch
Ladyscrape
Small Sourstick
Fleaseed
Sallet-root
Onion Straw
Tangent Weed
Net-tree
Fat Hen
Linden
Wall Rocket
Chokecherry
Eyebright
Mullein
Field garlic
Thimbleberry
Sculpit
Pennycress
Queen Anne’s Lace
Sweet Flag
Dogwood
Balm of Gilead
Sugar Maple
Lamb’s quarters
Wood Sorrel
Wild ginger
Milkweed
Purslane
Elderflower
Tansy
Lemon Balm
Oxeye Daisy
Sassafras
Dame’s Rocket
Wood Nettle
Spicebush
Sheep Sorrel
Bee Balm
Redbud
Knotweed
Fiddlehead Fern
Goutweed
Watercress
Burdock
Crabapple
Juniper
Nannyberry
Buck’s Horn Plantain
Autumn Olive
Prickly Ash
Black Nightshade
Water Mint
Anise Hyssop
Nodding Onion
Arrowroot
Squashberry
Swamp Rose
Juneberry
Witch Hazel
Shagbark Hickory
Smartweed
Cattail
Sweetgrass
Fireweed
Touch-Me-Not
Bunchberry
Wintergreen
Labrador Tea
Mayapple
Dog Violet
False Solomon’s Seal
Sarsaparilla
Yarrow
Wild Opium
Queen of the Meadow
Mugwort
Sweet Fern
Rowan
Black Walnut
Prickly Gooseberry
Ramp
High-Bush Cranberry
Hawthorn
Henbit
Glasswort
Lovage
Hop-Tree
Based in Southern Ontario, Canada, Deirdre Fraser-Gudrunas is the sole proprietor of Vibrant Matter, a business providing hand-foraged wild edibles to Toronto’s foremost restaurants. Her approach to food and art combines sensory plant knowledge with an emphasis on cooking as a point of access to community. Some past projects have included interactive dinners with artist collective Terrarea; a still-life garden planted with the artist Swintak for the AGO; a position as head chef at Don Blanche, an off-grid artist residency that uses wood stoves and improvised cooking locations to feed up to 80 artists at a sitting; as well as leading guided walks on discovering the micropolitics of edibility.
Her instagram is @vibrant_matter