Another something that has bounced up out of an area of the garden without any help or nurturing from us...another fun discovery. These are, of course, snapdragons, taking their name from looking a bit like a dragon's face, sometimes called dragon flowers, too. Do you remember squeezing them and it was like a frilly mouth snapping open?
Interestingly the botanical name, antirrhinum, comes from the Greek words 'anti', meaning 'like', 'rhis', meaning 'nose' and 'inus', meaning 'of',which altogether gives the meaning 'like a nose' - I've been looking at the flower a bit sideways trying to figure that one out...
I've always just thought of them as pretty bedding flowers and nice to cut for inside, but apparently a green dye is extracted from the flowers, in some places the seed is pressed to release an edible oil and in Russia, the leaves and flowers are useful for their anti-inflammatory properties.
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