Parroting a Lily. Alstroemeria psittacina, Parrot Lily, Utrecht University Botanic Gardens, De Uithof, Utrecht, The Netherlands
No, our Beautiful Plant is not a native of Mexico, although it has today been naturalised - often as an environmental weed as for example in Australia - throughout (semi-)tropical climes. And: no! it was not discovered by Clas Alströmer (1736-1794) during a trip to Brazil in 1753; that worthy naturalist never travelled to the New World. Beware of these 'facts' parroted on the internet...
But: yes! Alstroemeria does hail from Brazil and Peru where it was first described - with a different name: e.g. Hemerocallis floribus purpurascentibus striatis - by a missionary-explorer and naturalist from the Provence, Louis Éconches Feuillée (1660-1732). Great Carolus Linnaeus refers to Feuillée's long description, published in 1714 (including a drawing). Feuillée enthuses: 'The flower of this plant by its beauty deserves a place in the Gardens of the Incas'. And a bit further on he declares that plants of this kind might bring the Incas to knowledge of the true God...
And: yes! Linnaeus named Alstroemeria for his onetime student and faithful correspondent Clas Alströmer. During his extended travel in Spain, Alströmer entertained a lively correspondence with Linnaeus. It seems that Clas had sent Carolus seeds or bulbs of Our Plant from Cadiz, and that the latter was much taken by its beautiful flowers. Linnaeus wrote Alströmer he'd name the plants for him. Alströmer was much honored but as a worthy Latinist he on February 16, 1761, warned Linnaeus to get the name right: it's to be 'Alstroemeria' and not 'Alstroemia', to avoid confusion with the common family name 'Alström'. "No, I am Baron Alströmer, not a mere commoner", he must have thought as he penned his grateful letter.
It wasn't until quite a while later that Curtis's Botanical Magazine got around to describing this Alstroemeria psittacina. It had been received in Britain in the the late 1820s from Johann Georg Christian Lehmann (1792-1826), well-known botanist of Hamburg. Soon it had flowered delightfully in the Green Houses of Edinburgh and Glasgow Botanical Gardens. Curtis's (1830) writes glowingly: 'It is said to be a native of Mexico, and is certainly well deserving a place in every collection from the singular colour of its flowers'.
Parroting a Lily. Alstroemeria psittacina, Parrot Lily, Utrecht University Botanic Gardens, De Uithof, Utrecht, The Netherlands
No, our Beautiful Plant is not a native of Mexico, although it has today been naturalised - often as an environmental weed as for example in Australia - throughout (semi-)tropical climes. And: no! it was not discovered by Clas Alströmer (1736-1794) during a trip to Brazil in 1753; that worthy naturalist never travelled to the New World. Beware of these 'facts' parroted on the internet...
But: yes! Alstroemeria does hail from Brazil and Peru where it was first described - with a different name: e.g. Hemerocallis floribus purpurascentibus striatis - by a missionary-explorer and naturalist from the Provence, Louis Éconches Feuillée (1660-1732). Great Carolus Linnaeus refers to Feuillée's long description, published in 1714 (including a drawing). Feuillée enthuses: 'The flower of this plant by its beauty deserves a place in the Gardens of the Incas'. And a bit further on he declares that plants of this kind might bring the Incas to knowledge of the true God...
And: yes! Linnaeus named Alstroemeria for his onetime student and faithful correspondent Clas Alströmer. During his extended travel in Spain, Alströmer entertained a lively correspondence with Linnaeus. It seems that Clas had sent Carolus seeds or bulbs of Our Plant from Cadiz, and that the latter was much taken by its beautiful flowers. Linnaeus wrote Alströmer he'd name the plants for him. Alströmer was much honored but as a worthy Latinist he on February 16, 1761, warned Linnaeus to get the name right: it's to be 'Alstroemeria' and not 'Alstroemia', to avoid confusion with the common family name 'Alström'. "No, I am Baron Alströmer, not a mere commoner", he must have thought as he penned his grateful letter.
It wasn't until quite a while later that Curtis's Botanical Magazine got around to describing this Alstroemeria psittacina. It had been received in Britain in the the late 1820s from Johann Georg Christian Lehmann (1792-1826), well-known botanist of Hamburg. Soon it had flowered delightfully in the Green Houses of Edinburgh and Glasgow Botanical Gardens. Curtis's (1830) writes glowingly: 'It is said to be a native of Mexico, and is certainly well deserving a place in every collection from the singular colour of its flowers'.