Category: plants

Posted on

A flower clock

NY Time’ guest columnist  Leon Kreitzman writing for Olivia Judson’s The Wild Side, wrote in April about bees’ ability to tell the time of day and harvest pollen accordingly

In “Philosophia Botanica” (1751), the great taxonomist Carl Linnaeus proposed that it should be possible to plant a floral clock. He noted that two species of daisy, the hawk’s-beard and the hawkbit, opened and closed at their respective times within about a half-hour each day. He suggested planting these daisies along with St. John’s Wort, marigolds, water-lilies and other species in a circle. The rhythmic opening and closing of the plants would be the effective hands of this clock.

Here‘s a suggested collection of plants to use, which would open in sequence over time.

Horologium Flore, via Whispering Crane Institute
Horologium Flore, via Whispering Crane Institute

I’m staying at the sculptor Julia Barton‘s beautiful house in a hamlet called Donkleywood in Northumberland National Park, surrounded by sheep fields. It’s raining out, and her garden is sparkling. Swallows are absailing in and out of the eaves.

Julia Bartons garden
Julia Barton's garden
Posted on

The poison garden

“Grow your own mandrake and get 2 for 1 entry to The Alnwick Garden.”

Now that‘s a tempting draw.

Gates of The Poison Garden at Alnwick
Gates of The Poison Garden at Alnwick
Tunnel of Ivy En Route to the Poison Garden
Tunnel of Ivy En Route to the Poison Garden

The Duchess of Northumberland was granted permission to grow all sorts of toxic, noxious, illicit and delightful magickal plants, including cannabis, magic mushrooms and opium poppies in her garden at Alnwick Castle.

This excerpt comes from the San Francisco Chronicle, October 2005:

Open since February 2005, the Poison Garden is but the latest head twirler in the Duchess of Northumberland’s garden….

“I wanted to create a garden that was beautiful yet pleasurable, educational yet not stuffy,” the duchess said. “A place where families would want to come and spend the day.”

“The Poison Garden is a place of excitement and intrigue,” said the duchess, “especially for children. More seriously, it is a place for visitors to learn about the dangerous side of plants. Drugs are a major concern across the country and an emotive issue. Here we offer a new avenue to get people talking about the misuse of drugs — most of which grow in nature.” Cannabis, opium poppies, magic mushrooms and coca are among the garden’s plantings that required special government permission to grow.

Oddities learned along the way: Wild clematis, old man’s beard, was once part of the equipment of professional beggars, who rubbed its sap into scratches to make temporary but satisfactorily weeping ulcers. Monk’s pepper alters the hormonal balance in both sexes. Laburnum, a beautiful and popular shrub, causes convulsions, vomiting and frothing at the mouth when nibbled. Nibblers of strychnine, innocuously known as Quaker’s button, can end up with its dramatic final symptom — a posthumous fixed grin. Henbane in the right dosage will take someone to the doors of death, but not through them. “You will look convincingly dead,” said Holmes, adding reassuringly, “but should recover.”

…and she looks so nice, and wholesome!

The Duchess of Northumberland, who funded and designed the Poison Garden
The Duchess of Northumberland, who funded and designed the Poison Garden

The Duchess has written a companion book, “The Poison Diaries;” it’s a cross between a pastiche almanac and a moral tale:

The Poison Diaries
The Poison Diaries
Posted on

Charismatic megafauna: you can’t live without ’em.

“Giant pandas are ‘charismatic megafauna,’ a category that includes whales and other sea mammals, salmon and other inspirational fish, eagles and other flashy raptors. In each instance, the creatures help spotlight the hundreds of humbler but equally endangered species: the black-spored quillwort, the longhorn fairy shrimp.”
—”Birth and Rebirth,” USA Today, August 23, 1999

Usually thought of as poster children for environmental issues, they’re often super cuddly or super scary. Or both (like polar bears).

I’d add to this list:
Jellyfish (alien death squad)
Squirrels (mischievous urban representatives)

But people look at me funny if I start geeking out about plankton or mycelial networks (although the latter can get pretty trippy). If we could spin them right, they’d be seen for the superheroes they are.

More on the Uncharismatic Poster Children:


Mycelium Running:
How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

and Paul Stamets’ talk from TED:

(Above: Mycologist Paul Stamets lists 6 ways the mycelium fungus can help save the universe: cleaning polluted soil, making insecticides, treating smallpox and even flu … LINK to Stamets’ web site fungi.com)

Posted on

Berserker

Berserker image
The Vikings are said to have ritually ingested Amanita muscaria, in order to enter the ‘berserker’ state, ready for battle (the Icelandic name for fly-agaric supposedly contains the word, ‘berserk.’)

Verification on the Icelandic word for “fly-agaric” would be appreciated.

Amanita muscaria
Amanita muscaria
Posted on

15th century woodcuts of plants and other monsters

This, from a great collection in the Science and Society Picture Library:

science__society_10438573
Woodcut from ‘Hortus Sanitatis’, (‘Garden of Health’), printed by Johann Pruss in Strasbourg in 1497

and this, too:

science__society_10438567
Hortus Sanitatis was the most popular and influential herbal of its time, and served as an encyclopaedia of all knowledge and folklore on plants, animals, and minerals. It combines elements of natural history with subjects traditionally found in herbals, and includes many mythical creatures. Many of the woodblock engravings were taken from the German ‘Herbarius’ (1485), itself derived from earlier herbals, repeating many of their errors.