Amazing Colors. Hedychium horsfieldii, Java Ginger Lily, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
High above the Dieng Plateau of Central Java rises Mount Prahu. It was there that Thomas Horsfield (1773-1859), the American Poison-Ivy expert, found this Ginger and in 1815 sent it to his friend Sir Joseph Banks in England. In 1853 William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865), in his description using Horsfield's notes, calls it a 'most singular plant'. It's hard to disagree with that assessment. The curious rather unassuming flowers (see inset) give rise to this magnificently colored fruit.
Amazing Colors. Hedychium horsfieldii, Java Ginger Lily, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
High above the Dieng Plateau of Central Java rises Mount Prahu. It was there that Thomas Horsfield (1773-1859), the American Poison-Ivy expert, found this Ginger and in 1815 sent it to his friend Sir Joseph Banks in England. In 1853 William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865), in his description using Horsfield's notes, calls it a 'most singular plant'. It's hard to disagree with that assessment. The curious rather unassuming flowers (see inset) give rise to this magnificently colored fruit.