Aeglos and Seregon: The Unique Flowers of Amon Rûdh
I want to have a full post for each plant and animal species specific to Tolkien’s Legendarium. Let me know which one you’d like to see next!
Originally requested by @serregon
Aeglos and Seregon are two species of flowering plants unique to Tolkien’s Legendarium,. Both of these species are only ever mentioned in connection to Amon Rûdh, the hill upon which lived Mǐm the dwarf and for a time, Túrin and the outlaws.
Beyond, upon the moors and about the lower slopes of Amon Rûdh there grew thickets of Aeglos
Aeglos was related to gorse, a genus of evergreen, thorny shrubs in the pea family. Its name translated directly to point of snow but was usually read as snow thorn. The only mention of it in the legendarium is in The Children of Húrin where it grows on the sides of Amon Rûdh and the surrounding moors.
It was described as a tall and thorny shrub with sweet smelling white flowers. The thickets guard the opening to the home of Mîm.
Aeglos is also the name of the spear of Gil-Galad.
Gorse is also referenced as a species in both The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings, in this case likely referring to common gorse, a yellow flowering plant (picture here). It’s also sometimes called whin.
Seregon serves perhaps a still more dramatic significance
As the men of Túrin’s band drew near, the sun westering broke through the clouds and fell upon the crown and the seregon was all in flower. Then one among them said “There is blood on the hill top”
Seregon grows atop Amon Rûdh, covering the hill in small flowers the color of blood which is of course foreshadowing for the massacre that will later occur there.
Seregon was described as like stonecrop. Stonecrop or sedum is a large genus of flowering plants in the orpine family (which is also called the stonecrop family). The family is notable for a rare method of photosynthesis called Crassulacean acid metabolism. This involves a unique cycle of chemical reaction between night and day.
Many species grow on rock faces or within crevices. Seregon was the only plant atop Amon Rûdh though there are multiple species described on the slopes and base of the hill including rowan, silver birch and thorny trees, possibly an acadia species.
Similar flowers for reference might be Mexican stonecrop, English stonecrop, or Widow’s Cross (Sedum pulchellum). Unlike these however, the flowers of Seregon are a deep, blood red.
Stonecrop is also notable in the legendarium for being the flower that blooms at the crown of the stone king in The Lord of the Rings
