Avenida de los Alhelíes

The wallflower sprouts in March in the cracks of old walls, scents the air with a sweetness that deepens toward evening, and withstands cold that defeats showier plants. The word reached Spanish from Hispanic Arabic al-ḫayrī, and further back from Persian, during the centuries when Arabic was spoken on the peninsula, alongside so many other words that begin with that telltale al-. The Avenida de los Alhelíes belongs to a corner of the Hispanoamérica neighborhood where the street map filled with garden. A few steps away run the Calle de los Lirios, the Paseo de los Jacintos, the Calle de los Narcisos and the Calle de la Aralia, a little herbarium drawn on the plan when this land of the old Chamartín de la Rosa was developed. No record survives of why the wallflower in particular was chosen. What we do know is the flower: Matthiola incana, with a woody stem and clusters of purple, white or pink, grown for its scent long before anyone thought to put it on a street sign.