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The last couple of nights have seen extraordinary weather phenomena in The Netherlands. In the north there's been an almost unnatural display of Northern Lights. And down here the day sky seems to be more blue than usual. Certainly as blue as this Two-leaved Squill raising its head toward the blue above.
Autumn is upon us but still there was a faint peppery smell in the air around this pretty, rather small-flowering Geranium. Sometimes it's called 'Black-pepper-scented Pelargonium'. Its leaves and flowers grow on relatively long stems; hence the more common name.
A synonym is Pelargonium cradockense; that's for the hills around Cradock in South Africa where it was first collected at about 1000 m altitude.
This pretty flower is now in the Dry Tropical Greenhouse of the Hortus. I've photographed it before outdoors and gave a description (www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/43203994585/in/photoli...).
One might wax eloquent on the migratory powers of our Hoverfly! It has been found flying over the Ocean more than 200 km from the coast. But even more interesting is a discovery made in 2015 in Spain by Antonio Robledo, head of research&development of Biobest Sistemas Biológicos. Researching pest control on paprika in greenhouses, he found that Eupeodes corollae is an excellent natural assistant to farmers. Its larvae feed on the aphids that terrorise those pepper plants. And besides the adult Hoverfly is an excellent pollinator for the flowers that will yield the peppery fruits. A dual purpose insect and eco-friendly, too. In 2019 Robledo's discovery began to be implemented on an industrial scale.
In the photo Eupeodes is not 'working' - perhaps on migratory holiday from Spain - but indulging on Oxalis articulata, Pink Sorrel, in the Amsterdam Hortus.
Hierba en avenida del Mediterráneo.
Suena "In Paradisum" de la Misa de Requiem op. 48, de Gabriel Fauré, con la Orquesta y Coro de RTVE:
The foliage of Nicotiana tabacum, Common Tobacco, is particularly green rather late this year. It's now almost in beautifully pink flower (www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/22836771431/in/photoli...).
That green is a nice backdrop for two orange, procreating Cabbage Sawflies, Athalia rosae).
Hortus Arcadië is a botanical garden in Nijmegen, Netherlands.
It is part of Park Brakkenstein and laid out between 1969 and 1971.
Europe, Netherlands, Zuid Holland, Lieden, Rapenburg, Hortus Botanicus. Hothouse, Tropical plants
'De Hortus' is the oldest botanical garden of the Neherlands-- foudend in 1590 by Carolus Clusius. Website: here.
It's been a while since i posted Hortus pics, the last time was some 13 years ago: here, here and here.
Ah! Yes! Perhaps I should have stayed a bit longer in the Hortus and had myself a hot chocolate against the chill of walking in the garden. But having to cook a meal for a guest tonight it was wiser to return home...
And neither did I get even a whiff of chocolate from this Chocolate Vine now in full blossom. It gets its English vernacular name from the purported aroma but perhaps there's too much chill today. Our plant was first described for the West under the name Rajania quinata by Carl Peter Thunberg (1743-1828) whom I've often mentioned in these pages. He put together a marvelous Flora Japonica (1784) in which he discusses the plants he found in Japan during his stay on the island of Dejima (in the harbor of Nagasaki) in the service of the Dutch East Indies Trading Company (VOC).
La falaise de l'Hortus qui fait face à l'arrière du Pic Saint-Loup. The Hortus cliff facing the rear of Pic Saint Loup
This agave plant resides at De Hortus in Amsterdam. Said to be forty years old, the bloom is also the death of the plant. www.dehortus.nl/?lang=en
There are lots of Persicarias - in fact, one of them is a special favorite of mine on account of its honey: Buckwheat. This particular flower from the Himalayas intrigues because of its globular flower heads composed of lots of tiny florets. It was first collected 1802/3 by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton (1762-1829). He'd studied medicine in Edinburgh and wrote a thesis on malaria. He became a member of the British East India Company for which he worked 1794-1815 as an explorer, naturalist and physician. Among many publications he wrote an acclaimed An Account of the Kingdom of Nepal (1811) and his botanical finds were published in 1825.
This pretty Knotweed is here being visited by a small Sweatbee, Green or Emerald Furrow Bee.
A part of the Amsterdam Light Festival leads to the Amsterdam Hortus Botanicus...for some reason I found the illuminated trees more interesting than the art objects...
Here's an older one from the library that I missed at the time. I'm beginning to like it more and more.