The California superbloom included Nemophila maculata, a white blossom with a dab of purple at the end of each of five petals. It’s also called fivespot. The maculata in the scientific name derives from Latin macula, meaning “spot,” as in immaculate, meaning “spotless.” The Nemophila comes from Greek words meaning “forest-loving.” A nemophilist is someone fond of forests. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Nemophila maculata, or Fivespot, Etymology”
A little earlier this year we had the super bloom in California and I was reading about it and reading about a particularly beautiful flower called Nymophila maculata and it’s also called the five spot and it’s this beautiful little blossom that is sort of white in the middle and it’s got petals and each of them has a little purple spot at the very end. So it’s called five spot.
And I was thinking, why would it be called nemophila maculata? I mean, the maculata is from the Latin word for spot, like immaculate is something that’s spotless. But nemophila, I was thinking, I was thinking of the Latin word nemo, which means nobody. And so I was thinking it loves nobody? That doesn’t make any sense.
But as I started digging, I realized that it actually comes from the Greek word for forest, nemos, which also gives us the word nemophilist, which is somebody who loves the forest. A nemophilist. Yes. That’s a good word to have. Yes. So that was a whole lot of fun drilling down for me. I will add that to my bio. Nemophilist. Yeah. Nemophilist. Nemophilist.
Nemophilist?
Yeah.
I am a nemophilist.
You are.
Someone who loves forests.
Don’t ask me for a five spot, though.
I thought you were going to say it looks like a $5 bill.
With the guy in the middle.
I don’t know how they did that, but it was amazing.
It’s all about the Lincolns.
