What's in a Prague street name
Every street in Prague, one by one.
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I could talk about myself for ages, or I could point out that https://english.radio.cz/ed-ley-englishman-recording-stories-pragues-streets-one-one-8806941 is over two years old but still largely stands (other than the Twitter links).
Category: Plants
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Trnková was named in the early 1950s. We’re back in the rose family today: ‘trnka’ is blackthorn, or sloe (Prunus spinosa). Here in Czechia, their white, five-petalled flowers typically appear in late March or early April. These then bear black-blue fruit which ripen in October or November, and stay on the flower all winter. Hence…
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Šípková was built in 1972. ‘Šípek’ is rose hip – also known as rose haw. It’s the fleshy ‘false fruit’ of wild roses. It forms in the spring or summer, after pollination has occurred, and then ripens through to the autumn. (‘False fruit’ apparently means that it’s a composite fruit, formed thanks to the involvement…
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Tavolníková was built in 1990. ‘Tavolník’ is Czech for ‘spiraea’, also known as ‘meadowsweets’ or ‘steeplebushes’, a genus of plants belonging to the rose family. They’re deciduous shrubs, found across the northern hemisphere, but especially in Eastern Asia. They are not generally eaten – although Native Americans used to – and are frequently used as…
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Originally published on X on 7 April 2024. Jiřík Černý was born around 1511 in Rožďalovice, near Nymburk, but there are no written mentions of him until 1534, when he gained a bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Arts at Charles University. At some point (the years after his graduation aren’t well documented either), he…
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Originally published on Twitter on 24 June 2022. Plavínová was built in 1998 (making it newest street yet, but only until tomorrow). A plavín štítnatý, or plavín leknínovitý, or Nymphoides peltata, has its fair share of names in English too: fringed water lily, yellow floating heart, floating heart, water fringe or entire marshwort. It’s a perennial that grows in…
