"Since the beginning of time, nomadic tribes have brought their native flora, much of it bulbous, with them in their migrations, spreading interesting plant materials to new lands.....for medicine or food, thus the spread of the Madonna Lily (L. Candidum) to western Europe and Great Britain is often attributed to Roman soldiers who made a salve for wounds from the bulbs." (Alfred F. Scheider in Park's Success With Bulbs) Add to this the spread of plants by visitors taking back beautiful plants from visited lands, as happened with the tulip and advance the technology up till modern times with freighters chugging all around the world and one gets a picture of today's modern dilemma. We've increased the number of plants which can be grown in one's private property a hundredfold. Of course we've also increased the number of competitors our local species on public lands have to put up with by the same ratio. For the ‘here and now' however, I think I'll just stick with the benefits.
Many civilizations have chosen certain flowers to symbolize them. Some that stick out are the Egyptians with their lotus, the Turks with their tulips, and the French with their Fleur-de-lys. Most Egyptian wooden ships had a carving of a lotus flower atop the post that stuck up at the very back of the ship (the sternpost), symbolizing their nation much as a flag does today. Irises were also cherished by the Egyptians. Thutmose III was entranced by the ones he saw on his campaign in Syria and brought many plants home with him. He turned them over to his magicians and physicians for investigation into their medicinal and aphrodisiac properties. Iris root (or ‘orrisroot') came to be thought of as a cure-all and was used throughout Europe for hiding bad breath, keeping sheets fresh, and for ‘teething' babies on.
Before the Dutch had tulips to grow, the Turks had a passion for them and collected them throughout Persia and Asia Minor. The early (pre-Dutch) tulips were of the ‘lily-flowered' variety and were so common on motifs throughout the 500 year history of the Ottoman dynasty that, if an ancient piece of textile is found by some anthropologist today with tulips on it, it will almost immediately be pronounced ‘Turkish'.
Though the Fleur-de-Lys symbol goes back much further than the French, it most typifies them. It goes back to the earliest civilizations of Egypt and India and may not have been derived from an iris. Though it might have been derived from a lily, a spearpoint, or an arrowhead, it is believed to represent an iris. The kings of France used it as their symbol since the time of Clovis, under whom they, in gold, flew on his azure banner in the fifth century. They flew on banners carried to the Crusades and numerous other wars. In fact, when the English King Edward III and later his son Edward, Black Prince of Wales invaded France, claiming their lands, they felt it best to claim their symbol as well. From 1340 to 1801 it adorned much British armor and many pennants.
Just how the Fleur-de-Lys came to represent Clovis is sorta humorous. You see, eh.... he lost a bet with his wife. Pagan Clovis had a Christian wife, Clothilde who constantly nagged him to convert. He stood his ground until one day, about to go into battle against a more-powerful Germanic invader. He told his wife he'd convert if he were victorious that day. He was, and after his baptism in 496, he made the Fleur-de-Lys his symbol. His symbol had been three toads, but he replaced them with three irises found near the field of battle. Three toads, eh? I wonder if the argument with his wife wasn't more to change his symbol than to change his religion. Can you imagine Clothilde's linen?
The name, Fleur-de-Lys, hadn't come about yet. It started out under King Louis VII in the crusades, when it was named the Fleur-de-Louis (flower of Louis) in 1147. At that point, it was actually made not only the symbol of France, but of Christianity. Eventually, it was distorted into Fleur-de-Luce (flower of light), and then Fleur-de-Lys (flower of the lily) even though an iris isn't related to a lily.
The fall of the Roman Empire and the onset of the Dark Ages brought about a great reduction in gardening. It wasn't sparked again till the Crusades and the Renaissance. From that time on, the hunt for plants expanded to the point where entire expeditions were mounted just to find new cultivable plants. Voyages such as these included the famous trips of Captains Cook and Bligh. More general explorers brought back descriptions of fantastic plants, such as when Cortez described the Dahlia, which spurred later travelers to look for the plant. The aztec name for the plant in Mexico was acocotli, which meant "water pipe". I can't say why, perhaps the flower stem is hollow. When it was finally brought back to King Charles IV of Spain in 1789, he treated them like rare gemstones. His assistants were forbidden to share them with anybody. Settlers did their share - when the Dutch settled South Africa, they introduced many famous bulbs to Europe, such as Oxalis, Freesia, Ixia, Sparaxis, and Gladiolus.
Who can say how far back the Incas relied on potatoes (Solanum), or the Polynesians relied on taro (Colocasia esculentum, and grown in gardens here in San Diego as ‘elephant-ear'), or the northwestern native Americans relied on quamash for food. The elephant-ear is decorative, though not for its flowers. The quamash (Camassia) is popular for its flowers in cold-weather gardens. I don't know how much the native Americans appreciated the pleasant flowers, but they fought bloody wars for control of the upland meadows where they grew. I've always been too afraid to try eating one because, though they extend down here to California (the northern mountains), there is a very similar plant called the ‘Death Camass' which also grows here.
Other ancient depictions or discussions of bulbs are:
Egypt- According to a scroll dated about 1800 bc, meadow saffron (Colchicum) and squills (Scilla) were grown in Egypt for medical purposes. Colchicums have been used till fairly recently to treat gout. Perfumes of lilies were used in ancient Egypt to treat female ailments. Lilies and Narcissus also appear on tomb engravings. The pharaohs had anemones growing in their gardens. Funeral wreaths contained Narcissus and lilies. After reading in one of my bulb books that amaracinum flower was one of the scents added to the ‘cone of fat' rich Egyptians melted onto their head for the ‘perfume' effect, I was a bit lost. The closest thing I know to that name is Amarcrinum, which is a hybrid between Amarylis belladonna and Crinum, but that didn't come to be till recent times. Though it was accomplished in America, the same hybrid was accomplished in Italy and called Crinodonna, but that was at the same time as Amarcrinum. I can't find anything out about a bulb named Amaracinum, and suspect something was misspelled or misidentified, or both.
Minoans/Crete- Frescoes and vases have been found from the 15th century BC which had been decorated with lilies, crocus, and Iris. Of course, these people derived much of their trade from the saffron they got from Crocus, so they would certainly have appreciated them.
Israel- Solomon grew lilies and crocus.
Greece- By 380 BC, Greeks worked crocus, lilies, and hyacinths into ceremonial crowns. Sea squills (Urginea maritima, but called a Scilla by ancient Romans and Greeks) were often mentioned as a medicine, and are still used in Greek Easter ceremonies. Theophrastus, a Greek philosopher and botanist, wrote in about 340 BC of onions (Allium), anemones, crocus, cyclamen, grape hyacinths (Muscari), lilies, narcissus, and squills (Scilla). The same book (Sunset's How to Grow Bulbs) mentions ranunculus and gladiolus in this list. The ranunculus is possible, as a Persian native, they could have been transplanted by Theophrastus' time. I don't think the glads were possible though. They are natives to South and tropical Africa, and aren't mentioned by most authors in cultivation till their introduction by the Dutch in about 1774. All the others on the list are native to Greece or western Asia Minor and are certainly believable.
Rome- The flowers of lilies, hyacinths, and narcissus were used for numerous early Roman religious ceremonies, and Virgil (70 - 19 BC) wrote several poems about the lily, which turned it into a symbol of virginity. By the time of Pliny the Elder (1 AD), the saffron crocus (C. sativus) had become an important crop in Sicily.
