Plant of the Day

May 05, 2026

PANSY

The Pansy (Viola tricolor) derives its name from a corruption of the French word pensées, thoughts: thus poor Ophelia says:—

“Pray you love, remember,

And there’s Pansies,—that’s for thoughts.”—Shakspeare.

Spenser designated the flower “the pretty Pawnce;” Milton spoke of it as the “Pansy freak’d with jet;” and Drayton sings:—

“The pretty Pansy then I’ll tye,
Like stones some chain enchasing;
The next to them, their near ally,
The purple Violet placing.”

Rapin writes of the flower as Flos Jovis—the flower of Jove:—

“With all the beauties in the valleys bred,
Spearmint, that’s born with Myrtle crowns to wed.
And Jove’s own flower, in which three colours meet,
To rival Violets, though without their sweet.”

In addition to this grandiose title, the little flower rejoices in a multiplicity of epithets bestowed on it by rural admirers. It is Heart’s-ease, Forget-me-not, Herb Trinity, Three-Faces-under-a-Hood, Love-and-Idle, Love-in-idleness, Live-in-Idleness, Call-me-to-you, Cuddle-me-to-you, Jump-up-and-kiss-me, Kiss-me-ere-I-Rise, Kiss-me-at-the-Garden-Gate, Tittle-my-Fancy, Pink-of-my-John, and Flamy, because its colours are seen in the flame of wood. In the North-east of Scotland, and in Scandinavia, the flower is with a spice of irony called Step-mother. In ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ Shakspeare gives the Heart’s-ease magical qualities. Oberon bids Puck procure for him “a little western flower” on which Cupid’s dart had fallen, and which maidens called “Love-in-Idleness.” Says the fairy king:—

“Fetch me that flower—the herb I showed thee once;
The juice of it, on sleeping eyelids laid,
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it sees.”

The poet Herrick tells us, in regard to the origin of these favourite flowers, that—

“Frolick virgins once there were,
Over-loving, living here.
Being here their ends denied,
Ran for sweethearts mad, and died.
Love, in pity of their tears,
And their loss in blooming years,
For their restless here-spent hours,
Gave them Heart’s-ease turned to flowers.”

The Pansy was the accidental cause of Bertram, the first American botanist, devoting himself to the study of botany. The stamens and pistil of this flower have something grotesque in their appearance when disclosed, resembling to a fanciful mind an animal with arms, and a head projecting and stooping forward. Bertram, who was originally a farmer, while superintending his servants in the field, and giving them directions, gathered a Pansy that was growing at his feet, and thoughtlessly pulled off its petals one after another. Struck with the stamens and pistil, Bertram conveyed it home, that he might examine it more carefully. Its examination created in him that thirst for the knowledge of the construction and habits of plants which afterwards rendered him so famous, and won for him the friendship of Linnæus.

The Heart’s-ease is said to be sacred to St. Valentine. As the Herba Trinitatis, or Herb Trinity, it is the special flower of Trinity Sunday.

It is considered to be a herb of Saturn.