Birthwort or Dutchman's Pipe, Aristolochia cymbifera, Hortus Botanicus, Leiden, The Netherlands
In 1817-1820 the German botanist and explorer Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794-1868) travelled widely in Brazil. In his enormous collection of specimens was this Aristolochia cymbifera of the Birthwort or Dutchman's Pipe family (called Jarrinha in Brazil). At Munich he and another today famous botanist - Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini (1797-1848) - who was a gifted draughtsman as well, put together an illustrated volume of South American plants. In it they described this Birthwort.
The word 'Aristolochia' is thought to derive from the Greek for 'best' and 'delivery' (as in the 'delivery of a child'). The liquid extracted from its roots was used in medicine to expel the placenta after childbirth.
Zuccarini had a wide European network of like-minded naturalists and explorers. Another of these was the famous Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866), expert on Japan before that country was opened to the West in the mid-nineteenth century (1852-1854 by Admiral Perry). Von Siebold had lived the life of a doctor, naturalist and spy in Japan between 1823 and 1830, when he was expelled. In that time he had taken a common-law wife, Kusumoto Taki "Sonagi" (1807-1865). Their daughter Kusumoto Ine (1827-1903) became Japan's first female doctor practising western medicine. She specialised in gynaecology, but I haven't been able to discover whether she used our Aristolochia in her practice. Zuccarini helped Von Siebold in publishing the latter's Flora of Japan, although a complete edition had to wait until Von Siebold's sons completed it in the 1870s.
To connect again to Leiden, where this plant is in the wonderful green houses of the Hortus Botanicus: Von Siebold and his collection moved here upon his adventurous return to Europe. His house is now an exciting little museum asking to be visited.
But I had to return to my meetings, leaving another visit for a later day. It had been a well-worth half an hour, though, in the Green House as the Hortus itself was awash with rain.
Birthwort or Dutchman's Pipe, Aristolochia cymbifera, Hortus Botanicus, Leiden, The Netherlands
In 1817-1820 the German botanist and explorer Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (1794-1868) travelled widely in Brazil. In his enormous collection of specimens was this Aristolochia cymbifera of the Birthwort or Dutchman's Pipe family (called Jarrinha in Brazil). At Munich he and another today famous botanist - Joseph Gerhard Zuccarini (1797-1848) - who was a gifted draughtsman as well, put together an illustrated volume of South American plants. In it they described this Birthwort.
The word 'Aristolochia' is thought to derive from the Greek for 'best' and 'delivery' (as in the 'delivery of a child'). The liquid extracted from its roots was used in medicine to expel the placenta after childbirth.
Zuccarini had a wide European network of like-minded naturalists and explorers. Another of these was the famous Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866), expert on Japan before that country was opened to the West in the mid-nineteenth century (1852-1854 by Admiral Perry). Von Siebold had lived the life of a doctor, naturalist and spy in Japan between 1823 and 1830, when he was expelled. In that time he had taken a common-law wife, Kusumoto Taki "Sonagi" (1807-1865). Their daughter Kusumoto Ine (1827-1903) became Japan's first female doctor practising western medicine. She specialised in gynaecology, but I haven't been able to discover whether she used our Aristolochia in her practice. Zuccarini helped Von Siebold in publishing the latter's Flora of Japan, although a complete edition had to wait until Von Siebold's sons completed it in the 1870s.
To connect again to Leiden, where this plant is in the wonderful green houses of the Hortus Botanicus: Von Siebold and his collection moved here upon his adventurous return to Europe. His house is now an exciting little museum asking to be visited.
But I had to return to my meetings, leaving another visit for a later day. It had been a well-worth half an hour, though, in the Green House as the Hortus itself was awash with rain.