What does a living scarlet flower look like? Does the scarlet flower from Sergei Aksakov's fairy tale really exist? Peonies - flowers of the passing spring
There is hardly a person who did not read Aksakov’s fairy tale “The Scarlet Flower” as a child. And even if one is found, he probably heard the story about a merchant’s daughter who asked her father to bring her from overseas countries “a scarlet flower that would not be more beautiful in this world.”
If you believe the fairy tale, it is not easy to master this flower: it grows “on an unknown island, in the middle of the ocean,” and is guarded by “outlandish monsters.” And the flower itself is so unusual, bright and fragrant that hardly anyone dares to pick it.
What flower are we talking about? Does the scarlet flower really exist, or is it just a figment of the imagination? It turns out it exists! Moreover, there are several contenders for the role of the scarlet flower.
There is a version that the merchant’s daughter from Aksakov’s fairy tale could have desired an ordinary fern. There was a popular superstition in Rus' that on the night of Ivan Kupala the fern blooms and illuminates everything around with a scarlet light. It was believed that if you get this burning flower, you can master magical powers.
But this was not easy to do: according to legend, the fern bloomed only for one moment, after which it was torn off by the hand of an evil spirit with lightning speed. How can a mere mortal compete with him? Maybe the merchant's daughter simply believed that blooming ferns were more accessible across the sea?
According to other beliefs, the fairy tale could be about the gravilat flower.
Bright red gravilate, or coral gravilate (lat. Geum coccineum. "Cooky")
He comes from just “far away” - from the Balkan Peninsula, where Russian merchants often visited. In addition to the scarlet color, the gravilate has an interesting shape: the flower has smooth, shiny petals and many stamens in the middle.
Avens
Avens
Rafflesia Arnoldi is also suitable for the role of a scarlet flower. Its homeland is one of the largest islands of the Sunda archipelago - Sumatra.
This flower has neither stem nor leaves. He sits right on the ground - huge and exotic.
Rafflesia Arnoldi (lat. Rafflesia arnoldii)
For the Russian soul, such a flower was truly something out of the ordinary.
Whether any version is close to the truth is, alas, impossible to know. But we can guess why the imagination of the heroine of Aksakov’s fairy tale, as well as the entire Russian people, was so excited by scarlet flowers. After all, there are enough unusual flowers: a mysterious blue rose and an exquisite black tulip. But the youngest daughter from the fairy tale asked her father for a scarlet flower. And it's all about the color!
Still from the cartoon "The Scarlet Flower"
Scarlet is truly unusual for a Russian person. Scarlet flowers can be found in large quantities in hot countries; they are characteristic of tropical and subtropical climates. And in central Russia, where, as they say, there is winter 9 months a year, there are not enough bright colors in nature. Indeed, all the scarlet plants in Russian gardens came from afar: peonies remind us of China, tulips remind us of Central Asia, and the rose came to us from Persia.
Thus, all these flowers in Russia were grown artificially, but a wild scarlet flower evokes a range of emotions. Therefore, it is not surprising that for the heroine of Aksakov’s fairy tale, an overseas scarlet flower was sweeter than all the expensive gifts.
According to eyewitnesses, in the 19th century, peonies were a true decoration of spring meadows, steppes, and forests. Wild varieties of peony actually grow in China, Mongolia, the Mediterranean, and even the Caucasus. Residents of the Ulyanovsk region are lucky - every year they can see this miracle of nature, if, of course, they are not too lazy to drive through the southern regions of the region.
Steppe areas where peony grows in the wild make an indelible impression during flowering. Due to the plowing of the steppes and the predatory extermination of peonies by “lovers” of bouquets and grazing livestock, the plant has become rare and is listed in the Red Book.
Wild peony (or thin-leaved peony) cannot but touch the subtle strings of the soul of a Russian person, especially writers and poets. Russian writer Sergei Aksakov, whose name is inextricably linked with the Simbirsk province, immortalized the image of the peony in his famous fairy tale “The Scarlet Flower”. Endowed with magical properties, the flower reveals goodness, love, loyalty in a person and helps in the fight against black witchcraft. If you have ever seen this flower with your own eyes, you will understand that its amazing beauty is truly full of magic.
In the land where feather grass is like waves,
On the hillsides of protected land
In the spring after the cold snow melts
There is a sea of blue tits - flowers.
Petals painted with scarlet dawn
Lights burn in the grass of their eyes.
But having flared up like poppies, they will go out.
Their days are not long under the scorching sun.
Peonies are full of pristine beauty.
Tears of dew glisten on the buds.
You won’t find others dearer to your heart,
More beautiful than the inflorescences of the Slavic fields.
I heard a story from local residents:
Swords have been ringing here for centuries, and more than once.
Weapons were found around those battles.
The soil of these places is soaked in blood.
Maybe that's why they're bright red
Peonies are the flowers of the passing spring.
Doctor of Biological Sciences B. GOLOVKIN.
The poppy (Papaver rhoeas) has fiery red petals, but the Russian girl was not surprised by the poppy, it is too common and widespread, although only in the southern regions.
The southern plant of the summer adonis (Adonus aestiva lis) has red petals, but it is small for a fabulous miracle flower.
From the tropical forests of Brazil, bright red sage (Salvia coccinea) has reached our gardens.
Another scarlet flower - dawn. Its scientific name is lychnis, from the Greek word "lychuas" - lamp. Indeed, the flower is so bright that it seems as if light is emanating from it. In the photo - Chalcedonic lychnis (Lychnis chalcedonica).
Can lay claim to the role of the overseas fairy-tale scarlet flower gravilat.
A very tiny and inconspicuous plant with surprisingly bright flowers is the wildflower (Anagallis arvehsis).
It seems that it is difficult to find a person who did not read S. T. Aksakov’s fairy tale “The Scarlet Flower” as a child, or at least did not hear about it. The fairy tale begins with a scene of daughters' orders to their father, who is leaving for distant lands. In contrast to the older sisters, who wished for expensive gifts, “the younger daughter bowed to her father’s feet and said: “Sir, you are my dear father! Don’t bring me gold and silver brocade, nor black Siberian sables, nor a Burmita necklace, nor a semi-precious crown, nor a crystal tovalet, but bring me a scarlet flower, which would not be more beautiful in this world.”
And why, in fact, was the scarlet flower so sweet and loving to the youngest merchant’s daughter and she preferred it to all the temptations of rich clothes and jewelry?
For the sake of possessing a flower with an unusual color, the heroes of fairy tales perform unimaginable feats, from which the plot outline is formed. True, there are few such unusually colored flowers: a blue rose, a black tulip, an unnamed scarlet flower.
Why does a blue rose become unusual for us, while a bell of the same color is perceived without surprise? In the example with the rose, it is not the blue color itself that is striking, but its combination with the rose. We are accustomed to the fact that its flowers usually do not have a hint of blue, only various shades and combinations of red, yellow and white.
As for the scarlet flower, the reason is somewhat different. First, let's clarify what scarlet color is. It is most accurately defined in his “Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language” by V.I. Dal: “light, bright red; the deepest color of a rose, bright (not golden) dawn; crimson, crimson (not crimson), the colors of the blood of war lived (i.e. arterial. - B.G.)". For all its brightness and saturation, this color is original, not “hybrid”, that is, it does not contain “additives” of another color. In the old days there was another similar word - “brusn”, which also meant a rich red color, as well as derivatives from it the verbs “brusvyanit” - to paint with the appropriate paint and “brusvyanet” - to blush, turn purple, turn scarlet.
How is this color formed, or more precisely, what does this or that shade in flowers depend on?
Conventionally, three color groups can be distinguished in the flowers of higher plants: white, yellow and blue-red. In the blue-red group, all transitions from pure blue to bright red are observed; these colors are created by two categories of pigments. Some are concentrated in cell sap (anthocyanins and anthoxanthins), others are concentrated only in microscopic cell elements - plastids and contain mainly carotenoids.
Anthocyanidins cause the main range of colors from blue to bright red. The first part of the color scale is created by delphinidin derivatives (named after the blue delphinium - Delphinium), the bright red and orange colors are created by pelargonidin derivatives (Pelargonium - the Latin name for common indoor geranium). Epigenidin derivatives have the same effect, but they are much less common. Many intermediate shades, which largely depend on the acidity of the cell sap, give rise to cyanidin derivatives.
Antoxanthins - flavones and flavonoids - create a range of colors from ivory to light yellow. By interacting, anthocyanidins and anthoxanthins can create a new color. For example, yellow anthoxanthin with cyanidin gives an orange color, while ivory anthoxanthin enhances the color of blue anthocyanidins.
Plastid pigments are chemically different from cell sap pigments and therefore do not interact with them, creating an “independent” yellow and orange color.
All of the above pigments are distributed very unevenly in the plant kingdom. The following pattern is observed: derivatives of pelargonidin and epigenidin are most often found in plants of the tropics and subtropics. For example, there are many of these plants in the Gesneriaceae, Sterculiaceae, Bignoniaceae, and Tea families that live in hot countries. In temperate latitudes, pelargonidin and epigenidin are very rare in plants. And this, naturally, in turn affects their coloring.
In order to count the bright red flowers in the flora of central Russia, only fingers on one hand are enough: these are two types of poppy (Papaver rhoeas, P. argemone), Chalcedonian lychnis (Lychnis chalcedonica) and wild flower (Anagallis arvensis). In the temperate regions of Siberia there are even fewer of them: one species of tulip (Tulipa schrenkii) and dawn (Lychnis fulgens).
On the contrary, scarlet flowers are common in tropical and subtropical plants. But only a few of them are plain scarlet. Plants with bright flowers attract a variety of pollinators with their colors. For the tropics, this is especially important, since not only insects, but also birds, bats, even mollusks and reptiles act as pollinators here. Entomologists have found that insects are not able to distinguish the red color of the spectrum; they can be considered a kind of color blindness. The uniform scarlet color of the flowers attracts hummingbirds in the tropics of America, and small honey sucking birds in the Eastern Hemisphere.
That is why, in our side, poor in warm, bright red flowers, where there are no hummingbirds or honey suckers, the heroine of Aksakova’s fairy tale wished herself an overseas scarlet flower as the best gift.
Take another look at the flaming crimson plants of our gardens: they are all guests from afar. Peonies carry Chinese "blood", phlox - North American, scarlet tulips are reminiscent of Central Asia, gladioli - of South Africa.
In conclusion, let us slightly modify the question asked at the beginning of the publication: “Why did the merchant’s daughter ask for a scarlet flower, and not a red or bright red flower?” The answer for many, I think, is obvious. However, let us recall that in the old days the adjective “red” was not directly related to color. Suffice it to recall the proverb “A hut is not red in its corners, but red in its pies” or the folklore “red is a maiden.” It can be translated into modern language as the same root word “beautiful”, “wonderful”. The central square of Moscow - Red - got its name not from the color of the Kremlin walls or from the color of the blood spilled at the Execution Ground. It deserves the name “beautiful” solely thanks to the masterpieces of its builders. The word “scarlet” is sometimes used to mean “beautiful.” No wonder people said: “The scarlet color is dear to the whole world,” and in the old days a dear friend was sometimes called “scarlet friend.”
The debate continues over which flower played the main role in the fairy tale "The Scarlet Flower", and we will try to insert our thoughts on this matter, based on the statements and assumptions of both ordinary people and Doctor of Biological Sciences B. Golovkin.
The Scarlet Flower itself is shown for the first time on the screen, as a flower from which some radiance emanates, but as we know, at the moment such flowers have not been discovered in the world and it is unlikely that they have ever grown on our planet, it is this radiance that can be immediately discarded as some phenomenon thanks to which they tried to make this flower magically beautiful.
So we will look at more squat options, based on the facts that we know from the fairy tale.
Scarlet flower size
Firstly, the size of this flower was not so huge as to make one think about flowers like Rafflesia, because Nastenka could easily cover it in her hands, and this flower reaches an average size of only about 20-30 centimeters, or even grows up to a meter. So, although it was logical to think about Rafflesia in the role of the Scarlet Flower, we reject this version.
Scarlet flower color
This topic was well explained by Doctor of Biological Sciences Golovkin, describing that at the time when this fairy tale was passed on from mouth to mouth, there was not such a large division of the color gamut, and it is quite possible that under the color “scarlet” people simply perceived a bright red color, and the fact that in those days it was not accepted to paint flowers with dye, then the flower can be classified into one of three conditional groups “blue-red”, excluding “white” and “yellow”.It can be assumed that the description of the Scarlet Flower probably fits poppies, which have all the characteristics, but in Europe these flowers grew in nature and were unlikely to be so inaccessible.
Many may assume that the Scarlet Flower could be roses or tulips, but this version also disappears, since these flowers have long been known in Europe and Rus', with their own name, and not a nameless one, since people “hunted” the blue rose and black tulip.
As one of the more realistic options, you can consider Peony; it was brought to Europe from China and previously travelers only talked about such flowers. But theoretically, these flowers might not be so rare, since they tolerate travel well.
Turning to Golovkin’s article, where he tries to highlight exactly the color scheme of the nameless Scarlet Flower, he describes that it is the scarlet color that is more often found in the tropics. But in the latitudes of Europe, all of the above flowers settled thanks to people who brought seeds from their distant travels. To the already mentioned flowers you can add gladioli, gravilate and phlox.
So the scarlet and red color of the flowers, although brought from warm latitudes, was not so rare. Perhaps in the fairy tale Nastenka did not mean the Scarlet Flower, as a scarlet flower, because in the old days the color red was used not only as a color, but also as a beautiful one (the hut is not red..., the maiden is red, Red Square, etc. ), also, along with red-beautiful, scarlet (scarlet friend) was used. Perhaps Nastenka just ordered a beautiful flower to please the eye, no matter what color.
New version of which flower was called Scarlet Flower
In looking for options for comparing the Scarlet Flower from a fairy tale with the biological species of flowers in the world, no one remembered the flowers on the cactus. But the fairy tale itself suggests the possibility of a meeting between a monster and a beauty, and on a cactus, which few people have seen in Europe, and if they have seen it, I don’t think that this plant was called beautiful; the appearance of a flower with scarlet petals is already something beautiful and wonderful. Well, now remember what happened around the merchant after he picked the flower - thunder and wind erupted, everything turned black. This reaction could be associated with being pricked by a cactus needle, an action so painful that you immediately forget about all the beauty. And the very fact that there was a monster (an enchanted prince) on the island, all of whose property was in gold and jewelry (like the Arab sheikhs), but only one small flower brought joy, there were no others. This flower, the Scarlet Flower, could well be a cactus inflorescence. Try picking its flower and you will understand my reasoning.
