Garden Plants - Petunia

The etymology of the petunia is an unusual one. It emerged in the nineteenth cenury and comes from the French name for the petun tobacco plant, because of its similarity to that species and that in turn came from Guarani, which is a South American language, in which native tobacco is called pety. The Guarana or Guarani isn't just a tribe, it's also is a shrub or small tree native to Venezuela and northern Brazil which has an important role in Brazilian culture. The name 'guaraná' is derived from the Tupi-Guarani word wara'ná or divine and the tribes believed it to be magical, a cure for bowel complaints and a way to regain strength. They also tell the myth of a 'Divine Child' that was killed by a serpent and whose eyes gave birth to the plant. These days it turns up all over the place, both as a food supplement and as a miracle ingredient in energy drinks and bars.

Enough of the digressions. Believe it or not, petunias belong to the potato family. In 1985 it was suggested that the genus name itself, Petunia, was invalid and that the correct name should be Stimoryne. Fortunately, the rules of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature allow invalid names to be retained for well-known plants with a strong commercial significance, so that idea was kyboshed.

And of course, the petunia is part of a famous comic song which went to the top of the charts in 1961 - the singer was Tommy Cooper, and the glorious lyrics were:

Daddy came home from work tired
His boss had been driving him mad.
The kids were all shouting, the dog bit him too
His dinner was nothing but boiled over stew.

I guess it was then he decided
Up to the rooftop he'd go
He was about to jump off when
The kids started howling below

'Don't jump off the roof, Dad
You'll make a hole in the yard
Mother's just planted petunias
The weeding and seeding was hard

If you must end it all, Dad
Won't you please give us a break
Just take a walk down the park, Dad
And there you can jump in the lake.'

Garden Petunia photograph by MShades, used under a creative commons attribution licence