Some Brightness in the Morning. Limnanthes douglasii, Poached Egg Plant or Meadowfoam, Botanische Tuin Fryslân "De Kruidhof", Buitenpost, Friesland, The Netherlands
Waking up once again to Darkness and Rain, I got some Brightness from this pretty Poached Egg Plant, Limnanthes douglasii, that I saw a fortnight or so ago at Buitenpost.
I'm always quite amazed how many plants were imported to Europe in the days of the Great Explorers. Our Limnanthes was first collected on the Pacific Coasts of North America by that adventurous explorer, naturalist, botanist, mountain climber, the Scot David Douglas (1799-1834). He sent it to the Royal Horticultural Society where it fell into the hands of another intrepid naturalist. This was Robert Brown (1773-1858). He'd begun his botanical career as the naturalist aboard Matthew Flinders's (1774-1814) HMS Investigator. That ship was the first European one to circumnavigate Australia, and Brown put together an enormous collection of plants. Once returned home to London, he spent many years cataloguing his finds. His stature as a botanist was enormous, and he named many plants. But he was also a microscopist and made the first modern scientific observation of the cell nucleus (in orchids). Earlier, at the very beginning of modern science, Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) had already made similar observations in the blood cells of codfish and salmon.
Limnanthes-with-its-pretty-yellow-centre was named by Brown in 1833. Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1837 writes that the name is derived from the Greek to indicate its habitat: "the sides of watery places" (not as is sometimes said 'marshes'). 'Douglasii' is for David Douglas, of course.
Well, Groningen today is watery enough...
Some Brightness in the Morning. Limnanthes douglasii, Poached Egg Plant or Meadowfoam, Botanische Tuin Fryslân "De Kruidhof", Buitenpost, Friesland, The Netherlands
Waking up once again to Darkness and Rain, I got some Brightness from this pretty Poached Egg Plant, Limnanthes douglasii, that I saw a fortnight or so ago at Buitenpost.
I'm always quite amazed how many plants were imported to Europe in the days of the Great Explorers. Our Limnanthes was first collected on the Pacific Coasts of North America by that adventurous explorer, naturalist, botanist, mountain climber, the Scot David Douglas (1799-1834). He sent it to the Royal Horticultural Society where it fell into the hands of another intrepid naturalist. This was Robert Brown (1773-1858). He'd begun his botanical career as the naturalist aboard Matthew Flinders's (1774-1814) HMS Investigator. That ship was the first European one to circumnavigate Australia, and Brown put together an enormous collection of plants. Once returned home to London, he spent many years cataloguing his finds. His stature as a botanist was enormous, and he named many plants. But he was also a microscopist and made the first modern scientific observation of the cell nucleus (in orchids). Earlier, at the very beginning of modern science, Antonie Philips van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) had already made similar observations in the blood cells of codfish and salmon.
Limnanthes-with-its-pretty-yellow-centre was named by Brown in 1833. Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1837 writes that the name is derived from the Greek to indicate its habitat: "the sides of watery places" (not as is sometimes said 'marshes'). 'Douglasii' is for David Douglas, of course.
Well, Groningen today is watery enough...