Chilly Brightness. Tulipa heweri Raamsd., Hewer's Tulip, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In the chill of showers of snow and hail here this morning this pretty Tulip anyway had pushed its way into light. Its kin no doubt is used to this kind of weather for it hails from the mountains of northern Afghanistan. In 1974, Christopher Grey-Wilson (1944-) published his self-effacing but exciting 'Some Notes on the Flora of Iran and Afghanistan'. He describes the eight-month long botanical expedition led by Thomas Frederick Hewer (1903-1994) - whose main job was pathology and oncology - and himself in 1971. Crossing the Hindu Kush - towering 3800 m. in northern Afghanistan - along the pass cut by the Salang River at 2400 m. they found this pretty, ground-hugging Tulipa, which they recognised as a 'kolpakowskiana'. Though I hate the cold, I'd have loved to be with them! Anyway, this Tulip caught the attention of Leonard Wouter Dirk van Raamsdonk (1955-). His close examination - 'A New Species Tulipa heweri related to T. praestans' (1998) - led him to distinguish it from Kolpakowskiana and to define it as a new species which he named for versatile Hewer.
Chilly Brightness. Tulipa heweri Raamsd., Hewer's Tulip, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In the chill of showers of snow and hail here this morning this pretty Tulip anyway had pushed its way into light. Its kin no doubt is used to this kind of weather for it hails from the mountains of northern Afghanistan. In 1974, Christopher Grey-Wilson (1944-) published his self-effacing but exciting 'Some Notes on the Flora of Iran and Afghanistan'. He describes the eight-month long botanical expedition led by Thomas Frederick Hewer (1903-1994) - whose main job was pathology and oncology - and himself in 1971. Crossing the Hindu Kush - towering 3800 m. in northern Afghanistan - along the pass cut by the Salang River at 2400 m. they found this pretty, ground-hugging Tulipa, which they recognised as a 'kolpakowskiana'. Though I hate the cold, I'd have loved to be with them! Anyway, this Tulip caught the attention of Leonard Wouter Dirk van Raamsdonk (1955-). His close examination - 'A New Species Tulipa heweri related to T. praestans' (1998) - led him to distinguish it from Kolpakowskiana and to define it as a new species which he named for versatile Hewer.