[Trinity] Plant identification in Trinity College MS O.2.48 Apuleii Herbarium

[-JKP-]

Conoriel, at You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., looks like Dandelion.

The Greek name "stakis" suggests You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
The text says the plant has no stem and leaves similar to You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view..
Quite exceptionally, the text also provides Latin names for the plant: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. and You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. (left).

How to make sense of all these different plants? Where does "conoriel" come from?

It certainly looks like a form of dandelion.

It might say "stakis" but it might also be "stal'is" (staleris or staliris, which sounds like "stellaris" and which would fit the rays on a daisy-like flower).

If they mean Pliny/Plinius where it says pl'es (I'm not sure it is Pliny, but it does look like a reference to a person or group of people), then it says, "Pliny calls it ox-eye and ass lettuce", so maybe these are not meant as Latin names for this specific plant so much as a reference to how the plant looks (like saying "it resembles ox-eye by the daisy-like flower and basal whorl, and ass lettuce by its edibility in the group of dandelion, chicory and other lettuce-like plants").


Most lactuca species, sow thistles, and hawkweeds have long flower stalks, dandelion is one of the few that sometimes has short flower stalks, so a reference to a short stem would fit well with Taraxacum (common dandelion). Dandelion has more local names than almost any other plant and it's hard to know if the root of conoriel is conori, conor, conos, or something else.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. has red veins in the leaves and the flower is pale yellow and sometimes white rather than yellow, so it looks almost like a daisy flower (which would explain the oculis bovis reference). It matches very closely to the drawing: red veins, short stem, light-colored flowers. I've noticed other alpine and cold-weather plants mentioned in the Trinity MS, so an arctic plant wouldn't be out of place.

It might also explain the unfamiliar name. Common names of northern plants are often based on Gaelic, Norse, and Finnish rather than Greek or Latin. I can't account for the Hebrew name, an arctic plant probably wouldn't have a Hebrew name, but some of the arctic plants also grow in mountains in more southern areas, so there might be dandelions similar to Taraxacum arcticum that are more widely distributed in mountain regions.