A Book of the Seasons: Linnaea borealis (Twinflower)

 

For the first time I perceive this spring

that the year is a circle.  

I would make a chart of our life,

know why just this circle of creatures completes the world.

Henry Thoreau, April 18, 1852

(Linnaea borealis)

Thoreau knew Linnaea from three sites in Concord: the Loring’s Wood west of Loring’s Pond [Linnaea Borealis Wood, Linnaea Hill(s), Linnaea Wood-lot] Stow’s Wood by Deep Cut in the Walden Woods, and in the Holden wood-lot near Nut Meadow Brook   ~ Ray Angelo, Vascular Flora of Concord 

May 30. I find the linnæa, and budded, in Stow's Wood by Deep Cut. May 30, 1854

June 1. I find the Linnaea borealis growing near the end of the ridge in this lot toward the meadow, near a large white pine stump recently cut.  June 1, 1855

June 3. To Annursnack. By way of the linnæa, which I find is not yet out. That thick pine wood is full of birds. June 3, 1853

June 4. The Linnaea borealis has grown an inch. But are not the flowers winter-killed? I see dead and blackened flower-buds. Perhaps it should have opened before. June 4, 1855

June 6.  4.30 A. M. To Linnæa Woods. Famous place for tanagers . . .The linnæa just out. June 6, 1853

June 6.  I hear of linnaea out in a pitcher and probably (?) in woods. June 6, 1858

June 7.  Linnæa abundantly out some days; say 3d or 4th. June 7, 1854 

June 9. Gathered the Linnæa borealis. June 9, 1851

June 10.  I find some linnæa well out, after all, within a rod of the top of the hill, apparently two or three days. If it flowered more abundantly, probably it would be earlier June 10, 1856  

   

June 19. I cannot find the linnæa in Loring's; perhaps because the woods are cut down; perhaps I am too late. June 19, 1852

June 24. The Linnæa borealis just going out of blossom. I should have found it long ago. Its leaves densely cover the ground.  June 24, 1852

July 15. At about one mile or three quarters below the summit [of Lafayette], just above the limit of trees, we came to a little pond. . . In the dwarf fir thickets above and below this pond, I saw the most beautiful linnæas that I ever saw. They grew quite densely, full of rose-purple flowers, — deeper reddish purple than ours, which are pale, — perhaps nodding over the brink of a spring, altogether the fairest mountain flowers I saw, lining the side of the narrow horse track through the fir scrub. As you walk, you overlook the top of this thicket on each side.  July 15, 1858

See also 

Nature and Culture in the Northern Forest, 19

On the Trail of Twinflower (Linnaeus adopted the twinflower as his personal symbol.)

 A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Linnaea borealis (Twinflower)

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality.”

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2025

https://tinyurl.com/hdt-linnaea 

A great part of the meadow once belonged to the pond.

June 9..

James Wood, Senior, told me to-day that Asa (?) Melvin's father told him that he had seen ale wives caught (many of them) in the meadow which we were crossing, on the west of Bateman's Pond, where now there is no stream, and though it is wet you can walk everywhere; also one shad. He thinks that a great part of the meadow once belonged to the pond.

Gathered the Linnæa borealis.


H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 9, 1851

Twinflower
(Linnaea borealis)

Gathered the Linnæa borealis. See June 1, 1855 ("I find the Linnaea borealis growing near the end of the ridge in this lot toward the meadow, near a large white pine stump recently cut."); June 4, 1855 ("The Linnaea borealis has grown an inch."); June 10, 1856 ("I find some linnaea well out, after all, within a rod of the top of the hill, apparently two or three days. If it flowered more abundantly, probably it would be earlier."); and July 15, 1858 ("At about one mile or three quarters below the summit [of Lafayette], just above the limit of trees, we came to a little pond. . . In the dwarf fir thickets above and below this pond, I saw the most beautiful linnaeas that I ever saw. They grew quite densely, full of rose-purple flowers, — deeper reddish purple than ours, which are pale, — perhaps nodding over the brink of a spring, altogether the fairest mountain flowers I saw.")

June 9. See A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, June 9

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality.”

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2024

AMERICAN TWINFLOWER There are about 21 references to this in Thoreau’s Journal. 

His first mention of it is on June 9, 1851 where he records gathering it but not specifying where

• On January 21, 1852 he lists “Linnaea Borealis Wood” among other woodlands being cut down that winter more seriously than ever. 
• On June 19, 1852 he notes not being able to find the Linnaea in Loring’s [woods?]|, perhaps because the woods are cut down. This suggests that this is the site referred to as Linnaea Borealis Wood in January of that year. 
• On June 24, 1852 while in the vicinity of or returning from White Pond he remarks on finding this just going out of blossom and how he should have found it long ago, and how its leaves densely cover the ground. 
• On June 3, 1853 he mentions going to Annursnack Hill by way of the Linnaea which was not yet flowering. The next sentence refers to “that thick pine wood” in connection with the Linnaea. 
• On June 6, 1853 he visits the Linnaea Woods, a famous place for tanagers, and finds the Linnaea in flower. 
• On May 30, 1854 he finds this budded in Stow’s Wood by Deep Cut. 
• On June 7, 1854 he records going to Dugan Desert via the Linnaea Hills and finding it abundantly in flower. 
• On June 1, 1855 he discovers a station for this at the end of a ridge while surveying the Holden wood-lot (in the vicinity of Nut Meadow Brook). 
• On June 10, 1856 on his way to Dugan Desert he notes finding some of it in flower within a rod of the top of the hill [Linnaea Hills]. In the same paragraph he mentions sproutland of Loring’s thick wood that was. 
• On August 28, 1856 going along Marlborough road he refers to going over “linnaea sprout-lands.”

From the above Journal references it appears that Thoreau knew Linnaea from three sites in Concord: the Loring’s Wood west of Loring’s Pond [Linnaea Borealis Wood, Linnaea Hill(s), Linnaea Wood-lot] Stow’s Wood by Deep Cut in the Walden Woods, and in the Holden wood-lot near Nut Meadow Brook   ~ Ray Angelo, Vascular Flora of Concord Massachusetts,  American Twinflower; See also

Nature and Culture in the Northern Forest, 19; On the Trail of Twinflower

Painting by Hendrik Hollander, 1853. Via Wikimedia Commons.
Linnaeus adopted the twinflower as his personal symbol.

Twinflower

June 1.

A very windy day, the third, drowning the notes of birds, scattering the remaining apple blossoms. 

Rye, to my surprise, three or four feet high and glaucous. 

Cloudy and rain, threatening withal. 

Surveying at Holden wood-lot, I notice the Equisetum hyemale, its black-scaled flowerets now in many cases separated so as to show the green between, but not yet in open rings or whorls like the limosum.

Twinflower
(Linnaea borealis)

I find the Linnaea borealis growing near the end of the ridge in this lot toward the meadow, near a large white pine stump recently cut. 

C. has found the arethusa out at Hubbard’s Close; say two or three days at a venture, there being considerable.






H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 1, 1855

I find the Linnaea borealis [twinflower] See June 4, 1855 ("The Linnæa borealis has grown an inch."); June 7, 1854 ("Linnæa abundantly out"); June 10, 1856 ("I find some linnaea well out and  note to June 9, 1851 ("Gathered the Linnæa borealis.")  See also  A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Linnaea borealis (Twinflower) and  Nature and Culture in the Northern Forest, 19; On the Trail of Twinflower

Arethusa at Hubbard's Close. See May 30, 1854 ("I am surprised to find arethusas abundantly out in Hubbard's Close, maybe two or three days ... This high-colored plant shoots up suddenly, all flower, in meadows where it is wet walking. A superb flower.”); May 29, 1856 ("Arethusa bulbosa at Hubbard’s Close apparently a day or two.”).

June 1. See A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, June 1

Third windy day

scattering  apple blossoms

and drowning bird song.

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau, Twinflower

A Book of the Seasons, by Henry Thoreau

"A book, each page written in its own season,

out-of-doors, in its own locality.”

~edited, assembled and rewritten by zphx © 2009-2025