Anglesey has what may be the finest display of cyclamens in the country, rivalled only by the RHS gardens at Wisley.
The name cyclamen goes back to Greek kyklos, "circle", and we have related words like circus and cycle etc. These words may even be related to ring, the common PIE root being something like *sker-, "turn", with kyklos being a reduplicated form skersker. "ring" is from the same PIE root, so I suppose "circus ring" could be consider a triplication.
But what has this to do with cyclamens? Well the plant grows from a round tuber and the plant is named for that, the theory goes. This seems a bit tenuous to me; many plants have round tubers or bulb or corms, so why are cyclamens special?
Autumn Cyclamens at Angelsey Abbey
30 September, 2025
Anglesey has what may be the finest display of cyclamens in the country, rivalled only by the RHS gardens at Wisley.
But what has this to do with cyclamens? Well the plant grows from a round tuber and the plant is named for that, the theory goes. This seems a bit tenuous to me; many plants have round tubers or bulb or corms, so why are cyclamens special?