Beauty by Lily Pond Falls. Osbeckia australiana, Third Gorge, Nitmiluk National Park, Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia
The bats of Nitmiluk are truly a sight to behold and to hear, but the set of thirteen gorges itself is magnificent and even 'sublime'. There are pleasant boat excursions of several hours to the second and third ones. At the third gorge you can get off, and a short walk will take you to a crystal clear, relatively large pond into which falls from on high the Lily Pond Falls. Beautiful place, and fine for a swim.
There are lots of plants here as well. One of the beauties is this Osbeckia, Osbeckia australiana. It was first described by the French naturalist and botanist Charles Victor Naudin (1815-1899). No doubt this member of the Melastomataceae came up to Naudin's high standards of 'pure' plants. He opined that 'Nature' abhors hybrids. Charles Darwin used some of his insights, but dispensed with the Frenchman's natural philosophy as a whole.
The great Linnaeus had named the "Osbeckia" for his student and friend and collaborator Pehr Osbeck (1723-1805). Osbeck had travelled widely in India and China (1750-52) and he made his collection of Chinese plants - about 600 of them - available to Linnaeus.
No, I didn't pick this plant to be dried in an herbarium, but left it in the beautiful white light of a Nitmilukan Winter Day. Vaguely you can just see the blue of the pond in the background...
Beauty by Lily Pond Falls. Osbeckia australiana, Third Gorge, Nitmiluk National Park, Katherine, Northern Territory, Australia
The bats of Nitmiluk are truly a sight to behold and to hear, but the set of thirteen gorges itself is magnificent and even 'sublime'. There are pleasant boat excursions of several hours to the second and third ones. At the third gorge you can get off, and a short walk will take you to a crystal clear, relatively large pond into which falls from on high the Lily Pond Falls. Beautiful place, and fine for a swim.
There are lots of plants here as well. One of the beauties is this Osbeckia, Osbeckia australiana. It was first described by the French naturalist and botanist Charles Victor Naudin (1815-1899). No doubt this member of the Melastomataceae came up to Naudin's high standards of 'pure' plants. He opined that 'Nature' abhors hybrids. Charles Darwin used some of his insights, but dispensed with the Frenchman's natural philosophy as a whole.
The great Linnaeus had named the "Osbeckia" for his student and friend and collaborator Pehr Osbeck (1723-1805). Osbeck had travelled widely in India and China (1750-52) and he made his collection of Chinese plants - about 600 of them - available to Linnaeus.
No, I didn't pick this plant to be dried in an herbarium, but left it in the beautiful white light of a Nitmilukan Winter Day. Vaguely you can just see the blue of the pond in the background...