Fwd: Tamil (generic) names for Ceropegia spp.

[Dinesh Valke]

Thank you very very much Vijayasankar ji for this elaborate help with the generic Tamil name for Ceropegia spp.

Regards.

Dinesh

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Vijayasankar Raman <vijay.b...@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Feb 6, 2022 at 1:13 AM
Subject: Re: Tamil (generic) names for Ceropegia spp.
To: Dinesh Valke <dinesh...@gmail.com>

Dear Dinesh ji,

I looked at the etymology of the name Ceropegia and it appears that Linnaeus named it so as he thought the flowers looked like wax and shaped like a fountain or stream. The term wax-fountain may be written in Tamil மெழுகூற்று  Mezhugootru (wax = மெழுகு/mezhugu + fountain = ஊற்று/ootru), hence the name மெழுகூற்றுப் பூ would translate to the wax-fountain flower.

However, the name விளக்குப் பூ = Vilakku pū or Vilakkuppoo (lantern flower) seems more practical may be due to the popular use of the name lantern flower.

To describe the general habit in Tamil, the term கொடி = kodi is added as a suffix to the name of a climber (e.g. விளக்குப்பூ கொடி), and செடி = chedi for a herb.

Valli வல்லி is not a typical Tamil name. ஆலை Aalai generally refers to Mill (sugar mill = சர்க்கரை ஆலை). And, the names விளக்குப்பூ ஆலை and விளக்குப்பூல do not seem to be correct.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Vijayasankar

On Sat, Feb 5, 2022 at 12:56 AM Dinesh Valke <dinesh...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Vijayasankar ji,

Can we give a generic name for all those Ceropegia spp. which are found distributed in Tamil Nadu, yet are not given any names ?

In English, we have the "lantern flowers" given to the genus Ceropegia.

Taking help from Google Translate, I found விளக்குப் பூ = vilakkup pu.

If this does not sound / look good, maybe you can suggest a name.

Again depending on the plant's habit, we can suffix it with "வல்லி" or "ஆலை".

Thus for

climbing Ceropegia spp. ...  விளக்குப்பூ  வல்லி

non-climbing ... விளக்குப்பூ ஆலை ... I think the two words compound to  விளக்குப்பூல.

Please help.

Regards.

Dinesh