Calle Heliótropo

The heliotrope is a small flower, in bluish or purple clusters, famous for a sweet scent recalling vanilla and cherry. Its name comes from the Greek hēlios, sun, and tropos, turn: the plant that turns its head toward the sun. The street belongs to one of the most botanical corners of the Madrid map. In Almenara, and in neighbouring Valdeacederas, streets named after flowers, shrubs and trees crowd together: Geranios, Palmera, Vinca, Flor de Lis. Many of these names arrived in the mid-twentieth century, when Madrid absorbed Chamartín de la Rosa in 1948 and the duplicates had to be resolved. Where there had once been vegetable gardens and wasteland on the northern fringe, the map sowed a small herbarium of streets: a flower that follows the sun amid the asphalt.