Brilliantly Pantropical. Mucuna novoguineensis, New Guinea Creeper, Kebun Raya, Bogor, Java, Indonesia
This wonderful bright orange creeper must strike awe into the hearts of botanical scientists and horticulturalists alike. Here it is dangling in a memorial park in the Kebun Raya named for its first Indonesian director, Lebak Soedjana Kassan. He was more of a horticulturalist than a botanical scientist. But his predecessors were rather scientists first and then horticulturalists.
Our pantropical Mucuna was found in 1872 by Johannes Elias Teijsmann (1808-1882) on one of his forages on the island of New Guinea. The vine was scientifically described by a collaborator in 's Lands Plantentuin, Rudolph Herman Christiaan Carel Scheffer (1844-1880), in 1876. 'Mucuna' derives from a Tupi-Guarni word 'Mucuña' (in Spanish transliteration). Scheffer writes that Teijsmann was quite taken by the brilliant orange of its flowers.
Brilliantly Pantropical. Mucuna novoguineensis, New Guinea Creeper, Kebun Raya, Bogor, Java, Indonesia
This wonderful bright orange creeper must strike awe into the hearts of botanical scientists and horticulturalists alike. Here it is dangling in a memorial park in the Kebun Raya named for its first Indonesian director, Lebak Soedjana Kassan. He was more of a horticulturalist than a botanical scientist. But his predecessors were rather scientists first and then horticulturalists.
Our pantropical Mucuna was found in 1872 by Johannes Elias Teijsmann (1808-1882) on one of his forages on the island of New Guinea. The vine was scientifically described by a collaborator in 's Lands Plantentuin, Rudolph Herman Christiaan Carel Scheffer (1844-1880), in 1876. 'Mucuna' derives from a Tupi-Guarni word 'Mucuña' (in Spanish transliteration). Scheffer writes that Teijsmann was quite taken by the brilliant orange of its flowers.