Cornflower (Centaurea
cyanus) is a sturdy, drought-tolerant annual that will grow in poor, dry soil
with very little care. Also known as bachelor’s button, cornflowers were
originally blue, but the plants are now available in a variety of colors,
including red, white and pink. The fuzzy foliage has a grayish-green appearance.
The colorful blooms appear in March and usually last until the middle of May.
Cornflowers are often used in dried flower arrangements, because the dried
blooms retain their shape and bright color.
Thanks to herbicides, the cornflower has disappeared from the corn – together
with other plants which were probably more toxic. Disappeared along with the
word ‘corn’ – until the 18th century, all grain was called ‘corn’, and after
that the term was gradually applied exclusively to Indian corn or maize (Zea
mays). But thanks to the European Union policy of ‘set aside’, where farmers can
be paid to leave fields fallow (jachère in French) rather than grow crops for
which there is already a surplus, the idea of sowing with an annual flower mix
which won’t persist into the next year (jachère fleurie) and which almost always
includes cornflowers, has taken off. I’ve seen it a lot in central France, and
local authorities are encouraged to sow flower mix on any empty ground they own,
but this is not widespread in the Midi, where vines are predominant – if they
are grubbed up, winter wheat or maize are often sown.
Research has also shown that the flower mix increases the number of true wild
flowers, since the fields are untreated with chemicals and undisturbed all year.
It made me think how all the activities of a village are connected, so that
hunting is tied in by many links to other crops and products, to biodiversity
and sustainablility. In fact I found that the Departmental Federations of
Hunters are the main bodies giving advice and distributing seed.
