Thorny Friday. Colletia hystrix, Pink Crucifixion Thorn, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In 1789 Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (1748-1836) gave the genus of our very spiny, thorny shrub its name for Philibert Collet (1643-1718) who was apparently notorious for his barbed remarks against botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708). Jussieu names his own brother, inveterate traveler and explorer Joseph (1704-1779), as a finder of Colletia in Peru.
The Colletia hystrix in our Hortus was first described by Dominique Clos (1821-1908) on the basis of a type specimen (still preserved) that had been collected in 1828 In Chile by Carlo Giuseppe Bertero (1789-1831). Bertero traveled in Chile and from there back and forth to Tahiti between 1828 and 1830. He was lost at sea in a shipwreck off Tahiti.
It's a very thorny shrub and you have to be quite careful when you photograph it. Those thorns are interesting in another way, too. The shrub has only very few, small leaves, But the thorns manufacture chlorophyll, necessary for the plants sustenance. Hence they're green.
Thorny Friday. Colletia hystrix, Pink Crucifixion Thorn, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In 1789 Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (1748-1836) gave the genus of our very spiny, thorny shrub its name for Philibert Collet (1643-1718) who was apparently notorious for his barbed remarks against botanist Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708). Jussieu names his own brother, inveterate traveler and explorer Joseph (1704-1779), as a finder of Colletia in Peru.
The Colletia hystrix in our Hortus was first described by Dominique Clos (1821-1908) on the basis of a type specimen (still preserved) that had been collected in 1828 In Chile by Carlo Giuseppe Bertero (1789-1831). Bertero traveled in Chile and from there back and forth to Tahiti between 1828 and 1830. He was lost at sea in a shipwreck off Tahiti.
It's a very thorny shrub and you have to be quite careful when you photograph it. Those thorns are interesting in another way, too. The shrub has only very few, small leaves, But the thorns manufacture chlorophyll, necessary for the plants sustenance. Hence they're green.