Cuckooflower, cuckooflower!
Photo: Arne Ader
Translation: Liis
Cuckooflower
Cuckooflower; Lady's smock Aas-jürilill
A common species in Estonia, found in rather humid or wet habitats: meadows, forest clearings, stream and lake banks, also in marshes. At flowering the plant is up to 40 centimetres high. Leaves are pinnately, or featherlike, composed; the leaflets have a nearly or wholly entire margin; they are short-stalked or without stalk. The cuckooflower belongs to the mustard or Cuciferae family, and is a perennial.
The flowers are pale-coloured to white, with a pale violet tinge and with darker veins, petals up to one centimetre long. The flower raceme is set at the top of the stem: so the inflorescence is visible from far away. Flowering period until the end of June.
As seen by biologists, 5-6 species of cuckooflower grow in Estonia.
A not very conspicuous flower, but Shakespeare saw it and wrote about the "silver-white lady-smock":
"When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver white
And Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then on every tree
Mocks married men, for thus sings he
And lady-smocks all silver white
And Cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then on every tree
Mocks married men, for thus sings he
Cuckoo; Cuckoo, cuckoo:
O, word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!"
Unpleasing to a married ear!"
(Love's labour lost)
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