Blue! Bindweed, Convolvulus tricolor, Snippendaaltuin, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
A bit of planning gave me some time in Amsterdam to go to the marvellous Hortus Botanicus. Amsterdam had a medicinal, herbal garden officially already in 1638. The present grounds date from 1682. The garden is not huge but it's well-kept and there's some botanical study done here as well.
The famous early director of the 'old' Amsterdam hortus was Johannes Snippendaal (ca.1616-1676). Recently in 2007 it was decided to reconstruct his original herbal garden in a section of the 'new' garden. It's interesting, of course, to see that lay-out according to mid-seventeenth century insights. The present-day curators have taken care, too, for a wise and interesting labeling of the plants.
Snippendaal lived well before great Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) devised his binomial nomenclature for natural phenomena. The labels for the plants in the Snippendaaltuin have both the Latin binomial names still in use (just) today and those of Snippendaal and his contemporaries. Thus 'Convolvulus tricolor' as well as 'Convolvulus non convolvulus hispan. sylv. fl. caerul.'. That last 'definition' is highly descriptive of this beautiful Cerulean Blue non-trailing flower from the Spanish Forest! As for the word 'Bindweed'... I leave it to you to decide about its colorfulness! The common name 'Dwarf Morning Glory' is a bit confusing precisely because 'Tricolor' is non-trailing. Moreover, Morning Glory is an Ipomoena.
Meanwhile the blue sky had darkened and I went off to my appointment in a flurry of chilling rain.
Blue! Bindweed, Convolvulus tricolor, Snippendaaltuin, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
A bit of planning gave me some time in Amsterdam to go to the marvellous Hortus Botanicus. Amsterdam had a medicinal, herbal garden officially already in 1638. The present grounds date from 1682. The garden is not huge but it's well-kept and there's some botanical study done here as well.
The famous early director of the 'old' Amsterdam hortus was Johannes Snippendaal (ca.1616-1676). Recently in 2007 it was decided to reconstruct his original herbal garden in a section of the 'new' garden. It's interesting, of course, to see that lay-out according to mid-seventeenth century insights. The present-day curators have taken care, too, for a wise and interesting labeling of the plants.
Snippendaal lived well before great Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) devised his binomial nomenclature for natural phenomena. The labels for the plants in the Snippendaaltuin have both the Latin binomial names still in use (just) today and those of Snippendaal and his contemporaries. Thus 'Convolvulus tricolor' as well as 'Convolvulus non convolvulus hispan. sylv. fl. caerul.'. That last 'definition' is highly descriptive of this beautiful Cerulean Blue non-trailing flower from the Spanish Forest! As for the word 'Bindweed'... I leave it to you to decide about its colorfulness! The common name 'Dwarf Morning Glory' is a bit confusing precisely because 'Tricolor' is non-trailing. Moreover, Morning Glory is an Ipomoena.
Meanwhile the blue sky had darkened and I went off to my appointment in a flurry of chilling rain.