What though the rose has prickles, yet ‘tis pluck’d… Shakespeare, Venus and Adonis, line 592

I had to do a bit of research on William Shakespeare. His works are full of plant references, and thus fascinating for a botanist. Of course, he wrote many references to roses, seemingly one of his very favorite flowers. Now, many of his “rose” mentionings involve those sharp things on the branches (what we Southerners like to call “stickers”), and most of the time he refers to them as “thorns”… which is wrong. He did get it right in the above quotation, though.

Recommended for you

John Nelson is the retired curator of the A.C. Moore Herbarium at the University of South Carolina.

As a public service, the Herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit www.herbarium.org or email johnbnelson@sc.rr.com.

(0) comments

Welcome to the discussion.

Please log in, or sign up for a new, free account to read or post comments.

Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.