Protean Beauty. Quisqualis indica, Burma Creeeper, Edible Garden, Taman Tasik Perdana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Try to capture him and the Greek Sea God of Antiquity, Proteus, would suddenly change form and escape. In his description of Quisqualis indica, Georg Eberhard Rumphius (1627-1702), refers to Proteus to qualify the name he gave to this pretty plant. Rumphius - a merchant of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company on the Indonesian island Ambon - was an avid naturalist. After he went blind of glaucoma he pressed his wife and family and servants to further assist him in his endeavors. His notes were later published in a grand set of volumes in The Netherlands.
His writing shows tongue-in-cheek humor and a fine sense of punning. Thus he puns on the native word for Quisqualis as 'udani' (in which the 'u' is slightly aspirated to '(h)u'). Alternatively, Rumphius - originally from Germany - may have been used to the pronunciation of Dutch in Zeeland [many VOC officials came from that area] in which the 'h' is often dropped and the 'g' at the end of the word is very weak). He doesn't give 'udani''s actual meaning, but it sounds homonynously to Rumphius as the Dutch 'hoedanig'. This means something like: 'what way is it now?!', or: 'in which way', or 'what kind': 'Quis qualis' in Latin.
Rumphius is perplexed by the forms this plant can take; he's observed it in his garden: then it is tree-like, then it's a vine, again it's thorny, then smooth again. Like the God Proteus, it defies definition: hence 'Quis qualis', by botanists later joined together as 'Quisqualis'.
Quisqualis indica is found all over the tropics and goes by a variety of names. The most well-known are, I think, Burma Creeper or Rangoon Creeper. And as Rumphius writes: it's not native either to Ambon but appears to have been imported to that isle from Sulawesi.
The Taman Tasik Perdana here in Kuala Lumpur is still in the throes of an entire makeover and renovation. It's becoming really nice, and great strides have been made forward since the last time I was here this past Summer. But our Quisqualis has remarkably found its ground in what was once the 'Edible Garden', of kitchen garden plants. No doubt, this, too, will be changed and corrected...
(PS Those interested in the Latin and Dutch texts of Rumphius's Herbarium Amboinense do well to look at it through 'Botanicus.org'. There its pages are scanned neatly and clearly. Beware: there's also a word-scanned version on the internet in which all the medial esses come out as 'f', and, among other faults , the 'c' is confused with the 'e', etc.)
Protean Beauty. Quisqualis indica, Burma Creeeper, Edible Garden, Taman Tasik Perdana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Try to capture him and the Greek Sea God of Antiquity, Proteus, would suddenly change form and escape. In his description of Quisqualis indica, Georg Eberhard Rumphius (1627-1702), refers to Proteus to qualify the name he gave to this pretty plant. Rumphius - a merchant of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company on the Indonesian island Ambon - was an avid naturalist. After he went blind of glaucoma he pressed his wife and family and servants to further assist him in his endeavors. His notes were later published in a grand set of volumes in The Netherlands.
His writing shows tongue-in-cheek humor and a fine sense of punning. Thus he puns on the native word for Quisqualis as 'udani' (in which the 'u' is slightly aspirated to '(h)u'). Alternatively, Rumphius - originally from Germany - may have been used to the pronunciation of Dutch in Zeeland [many VOC officials came from that area] in which the 'h' is often dropped and the 'g' at the end of the word is very weak). He doesn't give 'udani''s actual meaning, but it sounds homonynously to Rumphius as the Dutch 'hoedanig'. This means something like: 'what way is it now?!', or: 'in which way', or 'what kind': 'Quis qualis' in Latin.
Rumphius is perplexed by the forms this plant can take; he's observed it in his garden: then it is tree-like, then it's a vine, again it's thorny, then smooth again. Like the God Proteus, it defies definition: hence 'Quis qualis', by botanists later joined together as 'Quisqualis'.
Quisqualis indica is found all over the tropics and goes by a variety of names. The most well-known are, I think, Burma Creeper or Rangoon Creeper. And as Rumphius writes: it's not native either to Ambon but appears to have been imported to that isle from Sulawesi.
The Taman Tasik Perdana here in Kuala Lumpur is still in the throes of an entire makeover and renovation. It's becoming really nice, and great strides have been made forward since the last time I was here this past Summer. But our Quisqualis has remarkably found its ground in what was once the 'Edible Garden', of kitchen garden plants. No doubt, this, too, will be changed and corrected...
(PS Those interested in the Latin and Dutch texts of Rumphius's Herbarium Amboinense do well to look at it through 'Botanicus.org'. There its pages are scanned neatly and clearly. Beware: there's also a word-scanned version on the internet in which all the medial esses come out as 'f', and, among other faults , the 'c' is confused with the 'e', etc.)