Honesty in a local village


Wonderfully deep pink flowers in this instance but, as an advert would say, other colours are available. Honesty is a naturalised garden plant rather than a native wildflower; this one was on a pathside in a picturesque local limestone-built village.  It belongs to the same family as the Brassicas (oilseed etc) and mustard.
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It gets its name from its flat, transparent coin-like 'siliques' (seed-bearing structures) where 'what you see is what you get'. The plant is probably better known for those than it is for its flowers, and they make a good element in a flower arrangement. If the pathside hasn't been strimmed when I go back, I'll try and get a photo of the ones from this plant.  Incidentally, the siliques are behind the synonyms 'moneywort' and 'penny-flower.'  In parts of mainland Europe, though, the siliques are compared to the 30 silver coins that Judas Iscariot was paid for betraying Christ and local names for it reflect that.

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