Trumpets of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Distictis buccinatoria, or Phaedranthus buccinatoria, or Bignonia buccinatoria, or Scarlet trumpet vine, or Blood red trumpet vine, and many more imaginative names. 'Buccinatoria' refers to Triton's trumpet (oh! just hear him blow his sea-shell! ).The other words refer to 'Phaedranthus', beautiful flower. 'Bignonia' is from Abbé Jean-Paul Bignon (1662-1743), librarian and influential adviser to King Louix XV of France - now let us praise an ecclesiastical maecenas! - who gave a scholarly position to the later enormously famous and influential botanist Joseph de Tournefort (1656-1708; among the latter's many feats was clarifying the concept of 'genus' in botany, which Linnaeus had left rather vague). Out of gratitude, Tournefort named the species after Bignon. And 'distictis' in this my rhyming photo reminds me of the concept of a poetic couplet!
This particular plant was first described by the Swedish botanist Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828), a student of the great Linnaeus at Uppsala. An avid collector, he knew that to enlist in the Duch East Indies Company (VOC) would take him to exotic places. Thus he became a ship's surgeon and traveled the Dutch colonies and mercantile ports. He is one of the first to give a European description of Japanese plants (he stayed at Decima and also visited Edo, present-day Tokyo). Thunberg saw South Africa, of course, sea routes being what they were, and avidly botanised there. Returning home to Uppsala, he became professor of medicine and natural history. He is sometimes called 'The Father of South African Botany' or the 'Japanese Linnaeus'.
I'm not sure how this plant of Mexican and South Amercan origin comes to be in South Africa...
These absolutely splendid flowers were stunningly bright in the New Year's sunlight. Curiously, they were photographed as I was entering Marais Nature Preserve from the supreme cultivation of the Botanical Gardens of the university. Expecting 'fynbos' at Marais, these great flowers confronted me at the gates with their beauty but also as a kind of anomaly for what I was intent on seeing: 'fynbos', decidedly uncultivated. (Incidentally, if someone can identify for me which of the many members of the Marais family this nature preserve was named for, I'd be very grateful. I only know that the name 'Jan Marais' is used for the name of this reserve, but there are many men listening to that name.)
Trumpets of Stellenbosch, South Africa
Distictis buccinatoria, or Phaedranthus buccinatoria, or Bignonia buccinatoria, or Scarlet trumpet vine, or Blood red trumpet vine, and many more imaginative names. 'Buccinatoria' refers to Triton's trumpet (oh! just hear him blow his sea-shell! ).The other words refer to 'Phaedranthus', beautiful flower. 'Bignonia' is from Abbé Jean-Paul Bignon (1662-1743), librarian and influential adviser to King Louix XV of France - now let us praise an ecclesiastical maecenas! - who gave a scholarly position to the later enormously famous and influential botanist Joseph de Tournefort (1656-1708; among the latter's many feats was clarifying the concept of 'genus' in botany, which Linnaeus had left rather vague). Out of gratitude, Tournefort named the species after Bignon. And 'distictis' in this my rhyming photo reminds me of the concept of a poetic couplet!
This particular plant was first described by the Swedish botanist Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828), a student of the great Linnaeus at Uppsala. An avid collector, he knew that to enlist in the Duch East Indies Company (VOC) would take him to exotic places. Thus he became a ship's surgeon and traveled the Dutch colonies and mercantile ports. He is one of the first to give a European description of Japanese plants (he stayed at Decima and also visited Edo, present-day Tokyo). Thunberg saw South Africa, of course, sea routes being what they were, and avidly botanised there. Returning home to Uppsala, he became professor of medicine and natural history. He is sometimes called 'The Father of South African Botany' or the 'Japanese Linnaeus'.
I'm not sure how this plant of Mexican and South Amercan origin comes to be in South Africa...
These absolutely splendid flowers were stunningly bright in the New Year's sunlight. Curiously, they were photographed as I was entering Marais Nature Preserve from the supreme cultivation of the Botanical Gardens of the university. Expecting 'fynbos' at Marais, these great flowers confronted me at the gates with their beauty but also as a kind of anomaly for what I was intent on seeing: 'fynbos', decidedly uncultivated. (Incidentally, if someone can identify for me which of the many members of the Marais family this nature preserve was named for, I'd be very grateful. I only know that the name 'Jan Marais' is used for the name of this reserve, but there are many men listening to that name.)