Pansy
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Viola tricolor hortensis |
The Pansy or Pansy Violet is a cultivated garden flower. It is derived from the wildflower called the Heartsease or Johnny Jump Up (Viola tricolor), and is sometimes given the subspecies name Viola tricolor hortensis. However, many garden varieties are hybrids and are referred to as Viola × wittrockiana. The name "pansy" also appears as part of the common name of a number of wild flowers belonging, like the cultivated Pansy, to the violet genus Viola. One or two unrelated flowers such as the Pansy Monkeyflower also have "pansy" in their name.
Developement of the Pansy
All across Northern Europe in the 1800s amateur gardeners crossed and recrossed the wild Heartsease (Viola tricolor) with another native violet (V. lutea) and eventually one from the Near East (V. altaica), to produce a host of bigger, bolder pansies. With the explosion of greenhouse-building in the Victorian age (due in large part to the availability of affordable, low cost steel) the bold flowers familiar to modern gardeners appears.
Pansies for Underplanting
Pansies are suitable for planting under shrubs; acting as living mulch, they inhibit the growth of weeds.
Uses
Pansies start blooming in the spring in the Northern Europe and the north of the United States, and in winter in warm climes. They are often cultivated with sweet alyssum as they make a pleasing colour combination and bloom at the same time.
Breeding and Life Cycle
Pansies have been bred in a rainbow of colours, ranging from gold and orange though to purple, violet, and a blue so deep as to be almost black. They are quite a hardy plant, growing well in sunny positions. Pansies are technically biennials that normally have two-year life cycles. The first year they only produce greenery; they bear flowers and seeds in their second year of growth, and afterwards die like annuals. Most gardeners buy biennials as packs of young plants from the garden center and plant them directly into the garden. Under good conditions, pansies and viola are perennial plants, although they are generally treated as annual or biennial plants because they get very leggy and overgrown after a few years. The mature plant grows to 9 inches (23 cm) high, and the flowers are two to three inches (about 6 cm) in diameter.
Name Origin and Significance
The pansy gets its name from the French word pensée meaning "thought". It was so named because the flower resembles a human face and in August it nods forward as if deep in thought. Because of the origin of its name, the Pansy has long been a symbol of Freethought and has been used in literature of the American Secular Union. Humanists like the symbol also, as the pansy's current appearance was developed from the Heartsease by two centuries of intentional cross-breeding of wild plant hybrids. The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) uses the pansy symbol extensively in its lapel pins and literature.
As a Woman's Name
Pansy is occasionally spelled "pansie" and can be a woman's name. In the United States, the name is popular among African Americans.
Reference