Heliotrope

[HELIOTROPIUM ARBORESCENS]

The sun-loving heliotrope suggested devotion to the Victorians.

These pale mauve flowers have a strong sweet scent of almonds or cherry pie. Thomas Jefferson referred to heliotrope as “a delicious flower.”

One of its varieties has been known in Europe since the dawn of the West, though the variations brought from Peru in the eighteenth century stirred public amazement.