the.com/candytuft
a flower named for sweets it can't taste, but bees absolutely can.
means A low-growing garden plant (genus Iberis) that produces dense, flat-topped clusters of small white, pink, or purple flowers.
from A compound that sounds sugary but isn't: the "candy" here has nothing to do with sweets — it comes from Candia, the old name for the island of Crete (and by extension Candy, an early name associated with the eastern Mediterranean), where some species were thought to originate. The "tuft" simply describes the plant's tufted, clustered bloom. So the name really means something like "the tufted flower from Candia," later misheard by English ears as a confection.
- name origin
- Candy is Candia, old name for Crete
- evergreen
- keeps green leaves through brutal winters
- flat tops
- clusters land like tiny white runways
- rock dweller
- thrives in cracks where other plants quit
- genus
- Iberis, nodding to its Spanish range
candytuft iberis sempervirens — evergreen flowering plant native to southern europe, produces white pink or purple clustered flowers
candytuft iberis umbellata — annual species from iberia, commonly grown as garden ornamental with fragrant flower clusters