English Style in Liège. Glass Houses and Basella rubra, Malabar Spinach, Botanical Gardens, Liège, Belgium
Of course in Liège I visited the wonderful Botanical Gardens. The Garden itself, with a pleasant pond, has scores of fine trees, but the real treat is the marvellous glass houses and their collections. Those glass houses were constructed between 1841 and 1884 in the then prevalent English style. Though severely damaged by wars and the weather, they've been maintained in great state. The collection of plants is truly worth a visit.
The inset shows the flower of Malabar Spinach, Basella rubra. I'd not seen it before. Usually you'll find only pictures of the beet-like foliage, but here's a cluster of flowers, one open to the public.
Our Basella was first described for the West by that intrepid Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) warlord and naturalist at the same time, Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein ( 1636-1691). He wrote a botanico-anthropological work on the Malabar regions which he governed between 1669 and 1676. In it he writes about this Basella rubra; its name he coins in neolatin from a local language. Its Dutch name - the plant was grown in the Botanical Garden at Amsterdam from 1685 - is Beetklim. That name derives from the Beet-fashioned foliage including the color of its stems and the fact that it's a climber ('klimmen' in Dutch means 'to climb'). The English Malabar Spinach refers obviously to the foliage.
So Olymp thought it would be nice to show you Basella's minute flowers.
English Style in Liège. Glass Houses and Basella rubra, Malabar Spinach, Botanical Gardens, Liège, Belgium
Of course in Liège I visited the wonderful Botanical Gardens. The Garden itself, with a pleasant pond, has scores of fine trees, but the real treat is the marvellous glass houses and their collections. Those glass houses were constructed between 1841 and 1884 in the then prevalent English style. Though severely damaged by wars and the weather, they've been maintained in great state. The collection of plants is truly worth a visit.
The inset shows the flower of Malabar Spinach, Basella rubra. I'd not seen it before. Usually you'll find only pictures of the beet-like foliage, but here's a cluster of flowers, one open to the public.
Our Basella was first described for the West by that intrepid Dutch East Indies Company (VOC) warlord and naturalist at the same time, Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein ( 1636-1691). He wrote a botanico-anthropological work on the Malabar regions which he governed between 1669 and 1676. In it he writes about this Basella rubra; its name he coins in neolatin from a local language. Its Dutch name - the plant was grown in the Botanical Garden at Amsterdam from 1685 - is Beetklim. That name derives from the Beet-fashioned foliage including the color of its stems and the fact that it's a climber ('klimmen' in Dutch means 'to climb'). The English Malabar Spinach refers obviously to the foliage.
So Olymp thought it would be nice to show you Basella's minute flowers.