[ANSTHRLD] Flower question.

Cisco Cividanes engtrktwo at gmail.com
Mon Jul 13 15:44:01 PDT 2009


Greetings,

I have a question for the heralds, or anyone with any botanical knowledge.

My understanding is that the college of heralds already has a flower
that is designated as a "Dogwood".  The image I saw depicts a 4 petal
flower (broad, round petals) with small half circles cut out of the
end of each petal.

flower image at this address
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IMG_1527Dogwood.jpg

heraldry image at this address. (from a West Kingdom COH site)
http://heralds.westkingdom.org/Minutes/2005/March02.gif

Now, here is my problem.  So far, I have not been able to find any
documentation that such a flower was native to Europe pre-1500s. In
fact, all of the examples I have been able to find are Chinese and
North American species.

The only native English or European  "dogwood" flower I could find, as
lest as far as an internet search would produce, seems to be a flower
with four very slender pedals. that spread apart is a  roughly cross
shaped pattern. Some are white, and some are a rather striking shade
of yellow.
Image at this address:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cornus_sanguinea_jfg.jpg

I am frankly tired of running the same searches over and over again,
and my knowledge of plants is limited at best. Can anyone with more
knowledge of trees, shrubs and the like, care to offer input on this?

And for people wondering where this question came from. A proposed
badge of mine displays four dogwood flowers. As they are drawn, they
depict the species of dogwood that I understand to be native to
Europe. It has been pointed out that  the badge might be rejected on
the grounds that these flowers do not match previously passed devices
that displays what are distinctly a round petaled flower like the type
found in  north America or China.

I am not completely versed in the subject of heraldic dogwoods, but at
the moment, it appears to me that my device, with an image of a native
European flower,  might possible conflict with an image of a
distinctly Non-European flower that goes by the same name in modern
terms.

Ivo Blackhawk


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