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What are those plants that we eat ? Where are they grown ? Since when ? How can we recognize them ? Fruits and vegetables, oil plants, cereals, tubers, aromatic plants, spices, components of industrial additives…, 707 species of food plants from the entire world, that can be bought on markets or collected in the wild, are described in this encyclopedia. Most species are illustrated with 1700 original drawings. Furthermore, for the first time, 350 maps illustrate the origin and diffusion of 557 species.

From the page Encyclopédie des plantes alimentaires, you have access on Pl@ntUse to a thematic index, errata and complements, because new species everyday appear on our markets.

• Chauvet, Michel, 2018. Encyclopédie des plantes alimentaires. Paris, Belin. 880 p., 1000 dessins couleur, 700 dessins au trait, 350 cartes. 69 €.

Why is seringat the French name of Philadelphus coronarius, whereas lilac bears the name Syringa ? My perplexity doubled when I read that this name came from the use of hollow branchlets to make… seringes ! This was the beginning of a long etymological search, that we detail in our Etymological dictionary. But this quest ended up in an enigma.

Renaissance botanists used to group several plants with frangrant flowers under the name Syringa. For instance, Bauhin in his Pinax (1623) distinguishes Syringa cærulea, which is lilac, Syringa vulgaris; Syringa alba, which is seringat (mock orange), Philadelphus coronarius; and Syringa Arabica foliis mali arantii, which is sambac, Jasminum sambac. It seems in fact that the name Syringa was first applied to the mock orange, but Linnaeus decided another way. This answers the first question.

As to the second question, you must know that the etymon of medieval Latin syringa is Greek σῦριγξ, -ιγγος - surinx, - ingos, which meant in ancient Greek "flute" or "fistula". In medieval Latin, this "flute" or "pipe" came to designate a "seringe". But in fact, we must not understand our hypodermical or intravenous seringes. Every pipe through wich a liquid was pushed was called a syringa, which applies to seringes for rectum or uretra enema !

The object size fits indeed more, but it seems that this meaning is not the right one. Tabernaemontanus may give us the right explanation in 1625 in his Neuw Vollkommentlich Kreuterbuch : "the branchlets can be used as a whistle (or flute), by removing the marrow". This explanation is highly plausible. What remains is to check it experimentally. If you have a lilac or a mock orange in your garden, cut off a branchlet, scoop out the soft heart, and blow into it to see (or hear) the result. Give us then the answer on the ethnobotany forum of Tela Botanica.

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