Colorfully Wet. Erica bicolor, Mossel Bay Heather, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In the mornings the plants in the South-African Glasshouse of the Hortus are watered. Here's a very wet Heather. It was first described in 1785 by a student of Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828) in Stockholm, one musician called Jacobus Bernhardus Struve (1767-1826). Struve hailed from a pharmacist family but his heart was especially in music and he became an accomplished composer in particular of comic operas.
There are many heathers and they're extensively studied. As far as I know the last rediscription and naming of this plant is by Edward George Hudson (1938-2015) and Inge Magdalene Oliver, née Nitzsche (1947-2003) in 2005 as Erica unicolor subsp. mutica. One of its notable features are the generally three-flowered clusters. It's an endangered plant and the Hortus is happy to have one in its care!
Colorfully Wet. Erica bicolor, Mossel Bay Heather, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
In the mornings the plants in the South-African Glasshouse of the Hortus are watered. Here's a very wet Heather. It was first described in 1785 by a student of Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828) in Stockholm, one musician called Jacobus Bernhardus Struve (1767-1826). Struve hailed from a pharmacist family but his heart was especially in music and he became an accomplished composer in particular of comic operas.
There are many heathers and they're extensively studied. As far as I know the last rediscription and naming of this plant is by Edward George Hudson (1938-2015) and Inge Magdalene Oliver, née Nitzsche (1947-2003) in 2005 as Erica unicolor subsp. mutica. One of its notable features are the generally three-flowered clusters. It's an endangered plant and the Hortus is happy to have one in its care!