White to Purple. Victoria cruziana, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
On March 3, 1829 the intrepid French naturalist and traveler Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny in Corrientes - now north Argentina - came upon an immense marsh caused by the confluence of a creek San-Jose into the majestic Paraná River. 'Là', he exclaims in his Voyage (1835), 'je trouvai une plante qui est peut-être l'une des plus belles d'Amérique'. In the local Guaraní language he says it's called 'yrupñ' ('y' means 'water'; 'rupñ' 'great disk', for the giant leaves). Later after his return to France he has time to describe our Victoria cruziana d'Orbigny (1840). The 'cruziana' is for the Bolivian-Peruvian general and politician Andrés de Santa Cruz Villavicencia y Calaumona (1792-1865) who had made many of his endeavors possible. In his description there are some polemics about the naming of both 'regia' and 'cruziana' which make for interesting reading but have today been resolved. Our Hortus in alternate years displays the 'amazonica' (regia), the 'cruziana' and a hybrid. This year it's 'cruziana's' turn again.
The photo shows the pure white first-day flower, and in the foreground the pink, purpling second day blossom. Then it will die.
What of our Alcide? He left the field of 'live' biology and became a paleontologist and 'catastrophic' creationist.
NB The wonderful website 'Tropicos' is incorrect in attributing the name 'cruziana' to Alcide's younger brother, also a scientist, Charles Henry Dessalines d'Orbigny (1806-1876).
White to Purple. Victoria cruziana, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
On March 3, 1829 the intrepid French naturalist and traveler Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny in Corrientes - now north Argentina - came upon an immense marsh caused by the confluence of a creek San-Jose into the majestic Paraná River. 'Là', he exclaims in his Voyage (1835), 'je trouvai une plante qui est peut-être l'une des plus belles d'Amérique'. In the local Guaraní language he says it's called 'yrupñ' ('y' means 'water'; 'rupñ' 'great disk', for the giant leaves). Later after his return to France he has time to describe our Victoria cruziana d'Orbigny (1840). The 'cruziana' is for the Bolivian-Peruvian general and politician Andrés de Santa Cruz Villavicencia y Calaumona (1792-1865) who had made many of his endeavors possible. In his description there are some polemics about the naming of both 'regia' and 'cruziana' which make for interesting reading but have today been resolved. Our Hortus in alternate years displays the 'amazonica' (regia), the 'cruziana' and a hybrid. This year it's 'cruziana's' turn again.
The photo shows the pure white first-day flower, and in the foreground the pink, purpling second day blossom. Then it will die.
What of our Alcide? He left the field of 'live' biology and became a paleontologist and 'catastrophic' creationist.
NB The wonderful website 'Tropicos' is incorrect in attributing the name 'cruziana' to Alcide's younger brother, also a scientist, Charles Henry Dessalines d'Orbigny (1806-1876).