Testicle Tree
Posted: Thu Sep 21, 2006 1:20 pm
Next time you serve avocado, your guests might be surprised to learn that its name is derived from the Aztec description of the plant it grows on: the testicle tree.
How did the avocado get to be so called? The fruit originates from the forests of central America, and was originally the size of an olive. Avocados were cultivated to today's large, oily, green magnificence by local people, including the Aztecs, who called them ahuacacuauhitl. This name, after some linguistic mangling by the Spanish, was written down as "avocado" by the British collector Sir Hans Sloan when he recorded the first full description of the plant in English in 1699.
The name "testicle tree" - which is what ahuacacuauhitl means - is a particularly apt description of the original wild species, whose fruit tends to dangle more than on the domesticated varieties, the better for it to be dispersed by birds such as the quetzal that grab it on the wing.
The avocado's name and shape ensured that the fruit enjoyed a salacious reputation among the Spanish conquistadores - so much so that the local monks deemed the tree to be a promoter of lust and banned it from their monastery gardens. The idea of the aphrodisiac avocado was revived in the 1920s by an importer in the US who, when stuck with a huge shipment of the fruit in danger of rotting in the warehouse, rang various newspapers and furiously denied the "scurrilous rumours" that avocados raised sexual potency. The result: massive public demand and an empty warehouse.
What other plant names have genital associations? The orchid got its name from the Greek word for testicle [orkis] because of the shape and wrinkled surfaces of the pseudo-bulbs of Greek orchids - and many of the other 20,000 species in this plant family. A genus of fungus that causes egg-shaped swellings on leaves has been named Testicularia. Then there is the tubular, erect and slightly curved fungal genus, which, topped with a small protuberance, livens up many suburban lawns. The Latin name is, forthrightly enough, Phallus.
Finally there is the family of plants called Apocynaceae. The fruit of many of its species are large, globular and paired. On a visit to Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, a British biologist looking at the Apocynaceae there remarked to one of his local colleagues that, in Ecuador's coastal forests, the common name for a similarly endowed member of the Apocynaceae family means "boasting man". The Ugandan biologist was unsurprised. "It is here too," he replied. The trees are different species, but some things clearly transcend culture and geography.
From issue 2568 of New Scientist magazine, 09 September 2006, page 52
How did the avocado get to be so called? The fruit originates from the forests of central America, and was originally the size of an olive. Avocados were cultivated to today's large, oily, green magnificence by local people, including the Aztecs, who called them ahuacacuauhitl. This name, after some linguistic mangling by the Spanish, was written down as "avocado" by the British collector Sir Hans Sloan when he recorded the first full description of the plant in English in 1699.
The name "testicle tree" - which is what ahuacacuauhitl means - is a particularly apt description of the original wild species, whose fruit tends to dangle more than on the domesticated varieties, the better for it to be dispersed by birds such as the quetzal that grab it on the wing.
The avocado's name and shape ensured that the fruit enjoyed a salacious reputation among the Spanish conquistadores - so much so that the local monks deemed the tree to be a promoter of lust and banned it from their monastery gardens. The idea of the aphrodisiac avocado was revived in the 1920s by an importer in the US who, when stuck with a huge shipment of the fruit in danger of rotting in the warehouse, rang various newspapers and furiously denied the "scurrilous rumours" that avocados raised sexual potency. The result: massive public demand and an empty warehouse.
What other plant names have genital associations? The orchid got its name from the Greek word for testicle [orkis] because of the shape and wrinkled surfaces of the pseudo-bulbs of Greek orchids - and many of the other 20,000 species in this plant family. A genus of fungus that causes egg-shaped swellings on leaves has been named Testicularia. Then there is the tubular, erect and slightly curved fungal genus, which, topped with a small protuberance, livens up many suburban lawns. The Latin name is, forthrightly enough, Phallus.
Finally there is the family of plants called Apocynaceae. The fruit of many of its species are large, globular and paired. On a visit to Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, a British biologist looking at the Apocynaceae there remarked to one of his local colleagues that, in Ecuador's coastal forests, the common name for a similarly endowed member of the Apocynaceae family means "boasting man". The Ugandan biologist was unsurprised. "It is here too," he replied. The trees are different species, but some things clearly transcend culture and geography.
From issue 2568 of New Scientist magazine, 09 September 2006, page 52