Gourt Home::Gourt :: Plants chosen to represent geographical areas
In a number of countries, plants have been chosen as symbols to represent specific geographic areas. Some countries have a country-wide floral symbol; others in addition have symbols representing subdivisions. Different processes have been used to adopt these symbols - some are conferred by government bodies, whereas others are the result of informal public polls.
National floral symbols
Each of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom has a traditional national floral symbol. In Scotland this is the thistle, and in Wales this is the Leek.
The maple is widely used as a symbol for Canada and the shamrock for Ireland.
State flowers and trees
In the United States, state flowers and state trees have been adopted as sumbols by state legislatures. See List of U.S. state flowers and List of U.S. state trees for complete lists.
County flowers and trees
A county flower is a flowering plant chosen to symbolise a county. They exist primarily in the United Kingdom, but some counties in other countries also have them.
County flowers in the United Kingdom
One or two county flowers have a long history in England - the Red rose of Lancashire dates from the Middle Ages, for instance. However, the county flower concept was only extended to cover the whole United Kingdom in 2002, as a promotional tool by a charity. In that year, the plant conservation charity Plantlife ran a competition to choose county flowers for all counties, to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.Plantlife's scheme is loosely based on Britain's traditional counties, and so some current local government areas are not represented by a flower, and some of the counties included no longer exist as administrative areas. Flowers were also chosen for thirteen major cities: Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham and Sheffield. The Isles of Scilly was also treated as a county (distinct from Cornwall) for the purpose of the scheme. The Isle of Man was included, but not the Channel Islands.
A total of 94 flowers was chosen in the competition. 85 of the 109 counties have a unique county flower, but several species were chosen by more than one county. Foxglove Digitalis purpurea was chosen for four counties - Argyll, Birmingham, Leicestershire and Monmouthshire) - more than any other species. The following species were chosen for three counties each:
- Bog Rosemary Andromeda polifolia (Cardiganshire, Kirkcudbright and Tyrone)
- Cowslip Primula veris (Northamptonshire, Surrey and Worcestershire)
- Harebell Campanula rotundifolia (Antrim, Dumfriesshire and Yorkshire)
- Thrift Armeria maritima (Bute, Pembrokeshire and the Isles of Scilly)
- Grass-of-parnassus Parnassia palustris (Cumberland and Sutherland)
- Pasqueflower Pulsatilla vulgaris (Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire)
- Common Poppy Papaver rhoeas (Essex and Norfolk)
For most counties, native species were chosen, but for a small number of counties, non-natives were chosen, mainly archaeophytes.
For a full list of the flowers selected, see County flowers of the United Kingdom.
County flowers in Ireland
- Bog-rosemary is the county flower of County Offaly *
County flowers in Norway
- Lily-of-the-valley was chosen as the county flower of Østfold *
- Globe flower is the county flower of Troms *
County flowers in Sweden
- Black vanilla orchid, Nigritella nigra, is the county flower of Jämtland *
- Mistletoe is the county flower of Västmanland *
County flowers and trees in Taiwan
Taiwan has selected county flowers for all of its counties *. A partial list:
- Magnolia is the county flower of Chiayi County *
- The Common Bombax Flower is the county flower of Taichung County *
- The Gaillardia is the county flower of Penghu County *
Taiwan has also selected county trees.
See also
External Links
"Plants chosen to represent geographical areas"