I’ve been thinking for a while about how to approach the topic of the world of Myths in botany and horticulture and I’ve decided that the best approach, as ever, is the simplest.

So we’ll approach the matter head on, literally, in black and white, using shapes not symbols. What I mean is that we’ll travel through the words themselves.

The Latin and Greek foundation on which the Linnean classification system is based, on which botanical vocabulary leans heavily generally speaking, is filled with meaning, with story, with myth. Unfortunately for us, the teaching of mythology is not considered essential in school – though much of ancient myth is the repository for wisdom, both lived and observed.

If you’ll join me on my travels, I’d love to show you what I mean – to show you how densely wrapped our language and our gardens are in myth, how tightly connected to the past, to gods and goddesses, to bristling hedgehogs and mad kings, to eternal love and folk magic.

Our word today is:

ANEMOPHILOUS

 Ἄνεμοι (Anemos) = wind in Greek

Phily/philia = love of /undue tendency to / fondness for

If you really wanted to, you could read the word as a ‘love of the wind’.

Definition

Anemophily is synonymous with ‘wind pollination’. It is a form of pollination where pollen is distributed by wind. This is a contrast to ‘entemophily’ which is pollination by insects.

Almost all gymnosperms are anemophilous, as are many plants in the order Poales, including 

• grasses – Stipa tenuifolia,
• sedges – Carex buchananii
• rushes – Acorus gramineus ‘Variegatus’

This is beautiful because the actual singularity of these plants is created by their movement which is given by the wind. So the fact that their future is ensured by the very same wind that makes them beautiful in a given moment is a wonderful way of connecting present to future.

Other common anemophilous plants are oaks, alders, hops, and members of the hickory or walnut family. Approximately 12% of plants across the globe are pollinated by anemophily, including cereal crops like rice, corn, wheat, rye, barley, and oats. 

In addition, many pines, spruces, and firs are wind-pollinated.

Mythology

The Anemoi were considered to be wind gods in ancient Greek religion and myth.

Sometimes they were represented as gusts of wind, sometimes as winged gods, sometimes as horses in the stables of the storm god Aeolus.

Each was ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came, and each was associated with various nature, seasons and weather conditions.

They were the progeny of the goddess of the dawn Eos and her husband, the god of the dusk, Astraeus.

A broad breakdown of who is who below:

Greek Name	Latin Name	Wind Direction	Season
Boreas	Aquilo	North wind	Bringer of cold winter air
Zephyrus	Favonius	West wind	Bringer of light spring & early-summer breezes
Notus	Auster	South wind	Bringer of the storms of late summer and autumn
Eurus	Vulturnus/ Euronotus/ Eurus	Southeast (or East) wind	No association

In Roman mythology, the equivalent of the Anemoi were the Venti – the Latin word for ‘winds’. Their function was similar so we needn’t go into too much detail on their account.