- London Pride (plant)
:"There are other meanings of "London Pride"Taxobox
name = London Pride
regnum =Plant ae
divisio = Magnoliophyta
classis =Magnoliopsida
ordo =Saxifragales
familia =Saxifragaceae
genus = "Saxifraga "
binomial = "Saxifraga × urbium"
binomial_authority = D. A. WebbLondon Pride ("Saxifraga x urbium") is a perennial
garden flower ing plant. Alternative names for it include St. Patrick's Cabbage, Whimsey, Prattling Parnell, and Look Up And Kiss Me. The name is sometimes applied to any of several closely related plants of thesaxifrage genus, but the "true" London Pride is a hybrid between "Saxifraga umbrosa ", native to the SpanishPyrenees , and "Saxifraga spathularis " (which is the plant to which the name St Patrick's Cabbage more correctly belongs, coming from westernIreland ). The hybrid has been known at least since the 17th century.London Pride is tolerant of dry, shady conditions. It grows to a height of 15–30 cm (6–12 inches) and provides rapid ground cover without being aggressively invasive, and in late spring produces a mass of small pale pink rosette flowers growing from succulent stems. It will grow well in neglected or unfavourable urban spaces where few other flowers flourish, and is a common garden escapee. In particular, tradition holds that it rapidly colonised the bombed sites left by the
London Blitz of the early 1940s. As such it is symbolic of the resilience ofLondon and ordinary Londoners, and of the futility of seeking to bomb them into submission. A song byNoel Coward , celebrating London and the flower, achieved great popularity during theWorld War II years. In thelanguage of flowers , London Pride is held to stand for frivolity, and its day is27 July , but this is not widely known.The section "Gymnopera" of the genus "
Saxifraga " are collectively referred to as "London Pride saxifrages", and others of them have "London Pride" in their common names, for example theLesser London Pride , "S. cuneifolia", and the Miniature London Pride, "S. umbrosa" var. "primuloides".External links
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20061004102344/http://www.htk.fi/terola/MATTI/tieto/1817+saxifxurbclarenelli.htm Picture of the flower]
* [http://crookedtimber.org/2005/07/07/london-pride/ Words of the song by Noel Coward]
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