Celosia

We all have plants that hold special meaning for our families.  Celosia, or cockscomb or coxcomb, is that plant for my family.  My maternal grandparents’ name was Cox.  So, we always called the beautiful fall flowers “coxcomb”.   It certainly made sense to call it cockscomb because the top of the flower really does look like the top of a rooster’s head, called the cockscomb.   We enjoyed its beauty coming forth as the summer flowers began to fade.  My grandmother made it a special occasion to come to her house for the spreading of the seed every year.  Once the flowers had gone to seed, she would cut a few and almost do a dance as she shook the seeds over the flower bed in preparation for next year’s blossoms.

The Latin name for the most common kind of coxcomb is “celosia argentea”. Celosia originally comes from the Greek word, “keleous”.  Keleous means burning, again, a reference to the flower’s red color.  Argentea means silver.  There must be some part of the plant that also looks shiny.   In doing this research, I also found out that the buds could be edible.  Grandmom never tried to fry up coxcombs, but she did make the best chocolate meringue pie in the world!

Let me know if there’s a plant name that you would like me to research.  You can just send me the English name.  I’ll do the Latin research.  My email is dlafon740@gmail.com.