The scent is intoxicating, strong and spicy-sweet - all the more welcome if you’ve just survived another wild Nova Scotian winter.
An early spring bloomer that pushes up between patches of melting snow, for two centuries, Nova Scotians embraced mayflowers as symbols of endurance and survival against all odds. Even before it was official, the flower decorated newspaper mastheads, military uniform buttons, stamps, and coins.
When they finally made it official, politics and passion merged in the legislation: “The mayflower is hereby declared to be and from time immemorial to have been the emblem of Nova Scotia.”
The mayflower penny, brought out in 1856, is a favorite of coin collectors for two reasons: first, it features a particularly flattering profile of Queen Victoria—a vast improvement over the downright homely image on the previous penny. Secondly, the image of the plant is one of the loveliest flower-coin engravings ever put into circulation before or since.
Botanically, mayflowers are members of the blueberry family. Like their cousins, they have some unlikely pollinators. Just a few decades ago a botanist observed the previously unrecorded feeding frenzy that produces seed dispersal: ants swarm the plant to feast on the glutinous coating on the seeds, ripping the seeds from the plant and dragging them over long distances to transport their treat back home.
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March 2006
Provincial Flower of Nova Scotia:
Mayflower
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Like many heavily scented plants, these tiny plants packed a big medicinal punch: native people kept a good supply of dried plants on hand to treat stomach, digestive and kidney problems.
More than anyone else, a Pennsylvania farmer, John Bartram, is responsible for recording and preserving our knowledge of native plant wisdom in North America. Born in the early 1700’s, Bartram was a man with ideas far ahead of his time.
Bartram became one of the greatest plant hunters in history, was a friend of Benjamin Franklin and many other notables of the day and sent the first mayflower specimen back to England.
His passion for plants made him one of the first environmentalists: he advocated replanting all forests to replenish timber. On his travels around North America, Bartram was assisted by a unique network of people who’s history has been all but lost: white captives of native bands who chose to stay with their kidnappers, embracing their new lives and cultures. They provided translation, acted as guides, and were the link that allowed Bartram insight into traditional native medicine.
Long before the first Pilgrims named this flower after their ship, mayflowers were revered as sacred plants by the Potawatomi people who believed the flower came directly from the hand of their divinity. Nova Scotians would agree that there is no better gift after a long, harsh Atlantic winter than a mayflower announcing that spring is finally here. |
