Hidden Compartments. Chironia linoides, Cape Centaury, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
When great Carolus Linnaeus described this plant under the name Chironia linoides in 1753, he refers to the catalogue of exotic plants by Jakob Breyne (1637-1697). In it our South-African plant is called Rapuntio affinis, a charming new plant ('nova ac venusta').
Breyne - whom I've often cited in these pages - was a member of a Hanseatic merchant family based in Dantzig but with many connections in Holland. He was himself a merchant and something of an artist but by avocation an ardent botanist. When he traveled in the Dutch Republic he invariably visited the botanical gardens fostered by many wealthy aristocrats. Among these was the one at Oud-Teylingen near Leiden jealously cultivated by Hieronymus van Beverningk (1614-1690). That garden was so important to Breyne that he dedicated one of his botanical treatises to Beverningk.
Beverningk was a powerful politician and ambassador, infamous in Dutch Orangist historiography for having concocted together with Johan de Witt, 'president' of the Republic, and Oliver Cromwell the so-called secret or 'hidden' Act of Seclusion, a 'hidden part' of the Westminster Peace Treaty (1654) ending the First Anglo-Dutch War. That Act excluded young William, later to be William III, from succeeding his father William II as Stadtholder. As things went, though, the beans were spilt and gave rise to quite a scandal. It's an exciting story...
Our pretty Chironia and its home in Beverningk's garden brought this 'Hidden Compartment' to my mind. Its reproductive organs are rather different from those of most (90% or so) other flowers. The stamens are tubular and the pollen grows secluded inside those tubes; at the top of the stamens - poricidal anthers - there's a tiny opening through which it can pass. But it can only be dislodged and carried away by so-called buzz pollinators, usually solitary bees that are able to vibrate their bodies in a given frequency, thus loosening that pollen. The pistil is sufficiently far away from those anthers to make self-pollination unlikely.
Hidden Compartments. Chironia linoides, Cape Centaury, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
When great Carolus Linnaeus described this plant under the name Chironia linoides in 1753, he refers to the catalogue of exotic plants by Jakob Breyne (1637-1697). In it our South-African plant is called Rapuntio affinis, a charming new plant ('nova ac venusta').
Breyne - whom I've often cited in these pages - was a member of a Hanseatic merchant family based in Dantzig but with many connections in Holland. He was himself a merchant and something of an artist but by avocation an ardent botanist. When he traveled in the Dutch Republic he invariably visited the botanical gardens fostered by many wealthy aristocrats. Among these was the one at Oud-Teylingen near Leiden jealously cultivated by Hieronymus van Beverningk (1614-1690). That garden was so important to Breyne that he dedicated one of his botanical treatises to Beverningk.
Beverningk was a powerful politician and ambassador, infamous in Dutch Orangist historiography for having concocted together with Johan de Witt, 'president' of the Republic, and Oliver Cromwell the so-called secret or 'hidden' Act of Seclusion, a 'hidden part' of the Westminster Peace Treaty (1654) ending the First Anglo-Dutch War. That Act excluded young William, later to be William III, from succeeding his father William II as Stadtholder. As things went, though, the beans were spilt and gave rise to quite a scandal. It's an exciting story...
Our pretty Chironia and its home in Beverningk's garden brought this 'Hidden Compartment' to my mind. Its reproductive organs are rather different from those of most (90% or so) other flowers. The stamens are tubular and the pollen grows secluded inside those tubes; at the top of the stamens - poricidal anthers - there's a tiny opening through which it can pass. But it can only be dislodged and carried away by so-called buzz pollinators, usually solitary bees that are able to vibrate their bodies in a given frequency, thus loosening that pollen. The pistil is sufficiently far away from those anthers to make self-pollination unlikely.