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#171196 11/07/07 04:01 PM
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Could someone tell us why it's so called--thanks most kindly

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=PHNO2


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No clue, but I am amused to find that a decoction of the plant is used as a wash to make weak, lazy babies walk. (Native American Ethnobotany) So it's possible the turkey tangle is from NA roots.


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Originally Posted By: Maven
No clue, but I am amused to find that a decoction of the plant is used as a wash to make weak, lazy babies walk. (Native American Ethnobotany) So it's possible the turkey tangle is from NA roots.


Must have been the Mississippi Choctaws, Maven. Their babies are known to be the laziest of all the Five Civilized Tribes.

But turkey tangle fog fruit is a corruption of the English phrasename turkey tangle frog fruit. Don't Google; think!

The diminutive turkey tangle frog fruit plant has clusters of flowers and fruits which to the imaginative eye resembles an encircling tangle of turkey feet. The wee plant grows about as high as a frog's eyelashes, hence the apt name.

Thank you.

Last edited by themilum; 11/08/07 12:30 AM.
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>about as high as a frog's eyelashes

I almost was buying this, until this phrase winked back..

-joe (blinkin' and nod) friday


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[>> It is is a flowering, broadleaf plant. It grows in a groundcover or turflike manner, and is often present in yards.
The inflorescence consists of a purple-coloured centre encircled by small white-to-pink flowers. The flower takes on a match-like look, which is why the plant is called matchweed.<<]


Others say the name comes from turkeys on the run being tackled due to its ground covering entangling manner of growth; fog is disputable. Sometimes seen as a corruption of the word frog, who feed on it, also maybe indicating that it grows in dry regions and depends for its water supply on fog and dew.

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Ok Chipheads, now I see it'll take a gig from Google to resonate within your straight-wired kilobit brains.

turkey tangle fog fruits = 1,028 google hits

turkey tangle frog fruits = 30,123 google hits


Now.
Do you have anything further to add?

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Learn to use the power of Google. Enclosing those keywords in double quotes yields nothing. Zip. Bupkis. I'm with tsuwm of "gray chumah". Ron diddli-oh-ding-dang-ob-dong-vious.


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Originally Posted By: themilum

turkey tangle frog fruits = 30,123 google hits


furthermoreover and in the second place, the very first hit I got for the above showed me that Texas Frogfruit is another name for Turkey tangle fogfruit.

-joe (Great jumpin' horny toads!) friday

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AKA capeweed.

But note that loss of an R after bilabials and labio-dentals is a feature of English. Cf, "lieberry", "Febuary", "speak", "infastructure", et al. Hence, "frogfruit" > "fogfruit" would be expected.

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Thanks immensely to all you guys


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No no no no, dalehileman, you are only through plowing when the horse is in the barn. Me amd my good buddy Faldage are still fighting tooth and nail to right the misconceptions of a consortium of new age googlegogglers who fog rather than frog.

Listen BranShea: No don't listen; look! Look at Faldage's pictures. See the turkey foot blossons encircling the fruit?

Listen tsuwm: As you know it matters little whether fog preceeded frog in a contest to determine context.
Useage useage useage is King by a vote of 30 to 1.

And please answer this rhetorical question, zmjezhd: Do you really think that the folksy people who saw this plant as a turkey tangle could not see frog fruit?


O'boy o'boy this is great. Me and the Faldage together again. Horatio and Horatio at the bridge. Sonny and Cher reunited. Arms interlocked akimbo; standing firm in truth and the American Way with lap dogs nipping at our heels.






Last edited by themilum; 11/09/07 12:07 AM.
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Do you really think that the folksy people who saw this plant as a turkey tangle could not see a frog fruit?

Only if the vox populi meant by Turkey, a country in Anatolia, by tangle, a Norwegian seaweed, by frog, a bit of braid, and by fruit, a flying fox.

Ye gods and little gnats! Two years before the lexicon, and still maypoling thy salted vaults. Do not pass go, do not collect an hundred semolians, do not splice commata, &c., &c.


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> Useage useage useage is King by a vote of 30 to 1.

and you totally blew off z's comment that your Google results prove absolutely nothing, as without quotes, you get *every page that has the word turkey AND tangle AND frog AND fruit.

for example, here is a "match" from page 10 of the results:
Quote:
It moved deliberatly through the tangle of wet leaves and twigs beside the trail, .... and occasionally a small branch or fruit would plummet to the ground.


the words 'turkey' and 'frog' are also widely interspersed on this page: http://www.birdguy.net/reports/costa_rica05.5.html

for the record, "turkey tangle frog fruit" gets 7 gh
"turkey tangle fog fruit" gets 5 gh

7 to 5

-joe (golly this is fun) friday

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Turkey, (a country in anatolia) was the gate way port from the exotic east to europe, of all things new, strange and wonderful

a new fowl? it must be from Turkey.. a turkey fowl.

(of course, those in the americas quickly got used to these new fowl, but called them turkey's anyway!)

and as for the fun name, the more i learn to look at flower and plants, the more sense their name have for me!

(but then, again, i LOVE Edward Lear's non-sense botany.. and force friends and relatives to look upon his wonderful plants --

he was a naturalist, and earned his income drawing illustrations for nature books.. but sometimes, it easy to believe some of his botany could be real..) in a world were there is turkey tangle frog fruits, anything is possible!

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Quote:
See the turkey foot blossoms encircling it?


---------- turkey feet

Yes, yes..you are right about the petals Milo, but this lap dog knows the All Way turkeys go. That's why I never saw their feet.

Must admit I did not miss them much when dinner was served.

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turkey feet

I s'pose the thing to do is look at pictures (warning drilling down involved) of the other species of fogfruits (genus Phyla, formerly known as Lippia), and see what sort of animal parts one sees in their flowers. Another common names for Phyla nodiflora (aka turkey tangle fogfruit) is matchweed. (Keep those kitchen matches 'way from those turkey fowls.) I took the turkey tangle part of the name to mean that turkeys (the bird, not the exotic oriental country) had difficulty walking in the stuff, but that just may be the old farm boy linguist in me. P. nodiflora is the kind of weed that grows close to the ground (according to the site linked to above, after 20 years of growth it reaches a height of 0.2 inches). Carpet comes to mind. Perhaps it's a Turkish rug.


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Here we have some matching data.(see post page one)

The flower takes on a match-like look, which is why the plant is called matchweed.

Others say the name comes from turkeys on the run being tackled due to its ground covering entangling manner of growth;


But the resemblance between the schematized feet and the flower petals are convincing.

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Originally Posted By: of troy

...but then again, I LOVE Edward Lear's non-sense botany and force my friends and relatives to look upon his wonderful plants. He was a naturalist, and earned his income drawing illustrations for nature books, but sometimes, it's easy to believe some of his botany could be real. In a world where there is turkey tangle frog fruits, anything is possible!




Thank you, Helen. Your amazing knowledge and keen insight is always a much welcomed addition to any Awad discussion. New York is the greatest!

Originally Posted By: BranShea

But the resemblance between the schematized feet and the flower petals are convincing.


What eyes! How rare a woman whose prerogative is only reality and truth. Old New York was once New Amsterdam so maybe you and of troy are cousins! Thank you for your observations. You're the tops!


Originally Posted By: themilum in a private message to Faldage if you are not the Faldage - don't look!

See Faldo, I told you that we could catch more flies with honey than we could with sticks. The lovely Misses BranShea and the lovely Misses of troy are now safely in our camp and goodbuddy tsuwm (who is probably reading this personal communique as we speak) is too intellegent and goodlooking not to climb aboard our bandwagon forthwith.

That dern zmjezhd is the problem. He doesn't think that a redneck from Alabama knows how to quotation qoogle. Ha! The time is now for his up and commence. Watch!




Hey zmjezhd!


"frog fruits"=17,823 google hits
"fog fruits" = 713 google hits

__________________________________ Ha!


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NY IS THE GREATEST? Milo, are you flirting with me? those words go beyond a bit of honey!

Careful boy, Honey turns into ... well should i get out my hip boots? it seems its getting a bit deep round here!

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"frog fruits"=17,823 google hits
"fog fruits" = 713 google hits


And, Milo:

frogfruit = 2,140 ghits
frogfruits = 6 ghits
fogfruit = 3,670 ghits
fogfruits = 355 ghits

Ya think?


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NY IS THE GREATEST?

Careful, Helen, there's more than dissimilation going on here. Think IRU.


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Originally Posted By: zmjezhd
"frog fruits"=17,823 google hits
"fog fruits" = 713 google hits


And, Milo:

frogfruit = 2,140 ghits
frogfruits = 6 ghits
fogfruit = 3,670 ghits
fogfruits = 355 ghits

Ya think?

Who me? Yes I think, and I think that you have made a minor point.

But think about it, zmjezhd, and please note that the common names of the so-called "fogfruits" all* adjectorially describe the physical characteristics of the plant rather than a fantastical image of some big turkey entangled within a tiny ground plant's wee and flimsy vines.

I'll tit if you'll tat?

FOGFRUITS
Scientific Name _____ Common Name

Phyla canescens (Kunth)_________ hairy fogfruit
Phyla dulcus (Trev.)____________ rough fogfruit
Phyla fruticosa (P. Mill.)___ diamondleaf fogfruit
Phyla lanceolata (Michx.)_____ lanceleaf fogfruit
Phyla nodiflora (L.) _____ turkey tangle fogfruit
Phyla stoechadifolia (L.)_ Small southern fogfruit*


Well?

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please note that the common names of the so-called "fogfruits" all* adjectorially describe the physical characteristics of the plant rather than some image of a fantastical turkey entangled within a tiny ground plant's wee and flimsy vines.

And, toys for tats: when did tangle become a synonym for foot?


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Phyla nodiflora. What do the classical languages say in this matter? (as you are able to translate this)

when did tangle become a synonym for foot?

You mean dzem turkeys could as well have gotten their necks entangled in the wee weeds?

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Once I sat on a pier while my best friend was drowning.

"Help!" He cried," give me a hand. I am drowning."

Because he was my best friend I extended a foot for him to grab onto to self-save himself.

"Hey!" He said, "that's not a hand; that's a foot!"

Him being my friend I patiently explained that when speaking the English language sometimes the word "foot" is implied and normally it is up to the listener to discern the implication and etc..

I still miss him. Pedants are fun but sometimes they miss the main boat.


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Besides Laminaria digitata 'kelp, tangle, cairn-tangle' which may be related to tangleweed (of Norse origin), the OED1 lists two other plants known as tangles: i.e., blue tangle (Gaylussacia frondosa, aka blue huckleberry, dangleberry, cited from Dunglison's Medical Lexicon), red tangle (Cuscuta epithymum, aka clover dodder, cited from Britten and Holland's English Plant-names).

The pertinent definition of tangle in the OED1 is "Applied to plants having long, winding, and often tangled stalks, as the species of Myriophyllum (Water Milfoil) and Potamogeton (Pondweed)". To tangle also means to snare or entrap.


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You mean dzem turkeys could as well have gotten their necks entangled in the wee weeds?

No, I meant that if it was called turkey-foot fogfruit, I might believe the posited etymology. But, it is called turkey tangle fogfruit, and sometimes just plain. old turkey tangle. Maybe the matchweed, in silhouette, looks like a tom turkey head when he's turned his back on you. I kind've like turkey-head frog fruit, but like all the other suggestions there just WAGs.


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Turkey tangled head foot frog weed confusions:
This is the last for me of this turkey tangled frog chase:
I throw the towel in the ring. I'm gonna jump.

That Frog he grinned a grin of glee,
And hit his chest a thump.
"Oh Turkey, just be ruled by me,
And thou shall see what you shall see.
This minute for a trifling fee,
I'll teach you how to jump!"
(thanks to my dear friend L.C.)



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Originally Posted By: BranShea

That Frog he grinned a grin of glee,
And hit his chest a thump.
"Oh Turkey, just be ruled by me,
And thou shall see what you shall see.
This minute for a trifling fee,
I'll teach you how to jump!"
(thanks to my dear friend L.C.)


Small world, B.S..
L.C. is a friend of mine too!

And so is Forest Gump who said Mama said...

"Don't cast pearls of wisdom upon swine,
And don't teach pigs to speak in Dutch.
And you can tell zhemzh many things
But you can not tell him much."




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themilum #171280 11/11/07 09:23 PM
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"Don't cast pearls of wisdom upon swine,
And don't teach pigs to speak in Dutch.
And you can tell zhemzh many things
But you can not tell him much."


I see. Shem the Postman was a goodly friend of mine, and he once wrote:

Quote:
Dante said:

— O, if not, the eagles will come and pull out his eyes.

Pull out his eyes,
Apologize,
Apologize,
Pull out his eyes.

Apologize,
Pull out his eyes,
Pull out his eyes,
Apologize.

I agree with BranShea, there's nothing more to see here. Move along.


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Quote:
Apologize,
Pull out his eyes,
Pull out his eyes,
Apologize.


Where's that from originally? I remember it from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

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I remember it from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

That's where I remember it from, too. Dante says it to the young artist.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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