Hot Chocolate. Akebia quinata, Chocolate Vine, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ah! Yes! Perhaps I should have stayed a bit longer in the Hortus and had myself a hot chocolate against the chill of walking in the garden. But having to cook a meal for a guest tonight it was wiser to return home...
And neither did I get even a whiff of chocolate from this Chocolate Vine now in full blossom. It gets its English vernacular name from the purported aroma but perhaps there's too much chill today. Our plant was first described for the West under the name Rajania quinata by Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828) whom I've often mentioned in these pages. He put together a marvelous Flora Japonica (1784) in which he discusses the plants he found in Japan during his stay on the island of Dejima (in the harbor of Nagasaki) in the service of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (VOC).
Hot Chocolate. Akebia quinata, Chocolate Vine, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ah! Yes! Perhaps I should have stayed a bit longer in the Hortus and had myself a hot chocolate against the chill of walking in the garden. But having to cook a meal for a guest tonight it was wiser to return home...
And neither did I get even a whiff of chocolate from this Chocolate Vine now in full blossom. It gets its English vernacular name from the purported aroma but perhaps there's too much chill today. Our plant was first described for the West under the name Rajania quinata by Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828) whom I've often mentioned in these pages. He put together a marvelous Flora Japonica (1784) in which he discusses the plants he found in Japan during his stay on the island of Dejima (in the harbor of Nagasaki) in the service of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (VOC).