Sweet Nectar. Reddish Granite Aloe-Vahombato, Aloe deltoideodonta, var. ruffingiana, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
You might imagine that a Frog like myself is delighted when a botanist also takes interest in Our Family. Richard Baron (1847-1907), a missionary to Madagascar from 1872 onwards, was a botanist, too, and a tireless geologist and herpetologist. He's the author of the first handbooks for geology and botany of the island in Malagasy. He loved Frogs, and one of our beautiful Malagasy relatives - Variegated Golden Frog, Mantella baroni - was named for him by a great, stay-at-home-in-Belgium naturalist, George Albert Boulenger (1858-1937) in 1888. How can I so green and black not be jealous of Baroni's golden-black markings?! I'd love to see that Family in person. But Madagascar...
Baron will not have encountered Baroni - who loves the dense, humid forests - where he found Aloe deltoideodonta. The Malagasy name Vahombato refers to the dry, granite areas where that plant grows. I needn't tell you much here about that history because Jean-Philippe Castillon in 2014 published a fine, updated article-length study of these Aloes: 'Nouvelle remarques sur l'identité de l'Aloe deltoideodonta Baker'. Ah! Yes: why Baker? well, John Gilbert Baker (1834-1920) wrote a flora of Madagascar commented upon by Castillon.
The photo shows a flowering stem of var. ruffingiana in the Hortus Botanicus; the inset is a close-up of a drop of nectar. Nobody watching me, I tasted it. Exquisite sweetness! But I forget my role: Frogs don't like sweets.
Sweet Nectar. Reddish Granite Aloe-Vahombato, Aloe deltoideodonta, var. ruffingiana, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
You might imagine that a Frog like myself is delighted when a botanist also takes interest in Our Family. Richard Baron (1847-1907), a missionary to Madagascar from 1872 onwards, was a botanist, too, and a tireless geologist and herpetologist. He's the author of the first handbooks for geology and botany of the island in Malagasy. He loved Frogs, and one of our beautiful Malagasy relatives - Variegated Golden Frog, Mantella baroni - was named for him by a great, stay-at-home-in-Belgium naturalist, George Albert Boulenger (1858-1937) in 1888. How can I so green and black not be jealous of Baroni's golden-black markings?! I'd love to see that Family in person. But Madagascar...
Baron will not have encountered Baroni - who loves the dense, humid forests - where he found Aloe deltoideodonta. The Malagasy name Vahombato refers to the dry, granite areas where that plant grows. I needn't tell you much here about that history because Jean-Philippe Castillon in 2014 published a fine, updated article-length study of these Aloes: 'Nouvelle remarques sur l'identité de l'Aloe deltoideodonta Baker'. Ah! Yes: why Baker? well, John Gilbert Baker (1834-1920) wrote a flora of Madagascar commented upon by Castillon.
The photo shows a flowering stem of var. ruffingiana in the Hortus Botanicus; the inset is a close-up of a drop of nectar. Nobody watching me, I tasted it. Exquisite sweetness! But I forget my role: Frogs don't like sweets.