the.com/speedwell
A wildflower so eager to bloom it scatters its petals before you finish admiring them.
means A small herbaceous plant of the genus Veronica, bearing delicate blue (sometimes white or pink) flowers, common in fields, lawns, and verges.
from An English compound of "speed" and "well" — a kind of botanical farewell. "Speed" here carries its older sense of "prosper" or "fare" (as in "God speed you"), so the name reads as a wish: "fare well." The fittingness is doubled by the flower's famously fragile petals, which drop almost as soon as it's picked — as if it were already speeding on its way. It also goes by the name Veronica, traditionally linked to St. Veronica, though that connection is later and devotional rather than the source of the everyday name.
- name origin
- Means goodbye, for petals that drop overnight
- folk shield
- Sewn into travelers' clothes for safe journeys
- tea history
- Brewed as a coffee substitute across old Europe
- tiny giant
- Flowers span barely a quarter inch wide
veronica chamaedrys — common speedwell wildflower with bright blue flowers, native to europe and asia
veronica officinalis — heath speedwell used traditionally in herbal medicine across europe