Plants 54-56

I let my enthusiasm for fuller description get me carried away last essay; I will try to be more "diligent" in getting us to the 60th plant here, though several alluring detours already are issuing their Siren calls.

54. The African violet, Saintpaulia ionantha, is popular and fairly easy to spot. It has "fuzzy leaves with long petioles" (stems); the flowers, often violet or pink, are borne above the shiny foliage. Here is another picture. I love the family name: Gesneriaceae, named after my 16th century friend Conrad Gesner (1516-1565). This polymath and lightning-quick writer wrote 73 books, many of them quite long, on zoology, botany, bibliography, the study of languages and other subjects in his 49-year life. He also loved long mountain excursions, where he could use his threefold interest in botany, exercise and enjoyment of nature's beauties. I call him my "friend" because we share the same soul....I completed my "73rd" book last month...11 actual books and the equivalent of 62 "web books." I was referring to the last several months, where I was writing my 73rd, as my "Gesnerian stage." Thus, though I like the African violet, and have even had it in my home over the years, I love this for the sake of Conrad Gesner. The genus in this case was named for Baron Walter von Saint Paul-Illaire, a 19th century German official in East Africa who discovered the plant. More stories..

55. I am afraid I am going to get distracted on the Rhapis excelsa, the "Lady Palm," pictured here. It is in the Arecaceae family, which was formerly the Palmaceae family. The foliage resembles the digits of one's hand, and it has a reed-like trunk. The genus name means "elevated or raised needle," and you can see that fairly easily in the palm. Some pictures have rather thick digits, as here, but many have thin leaves, as here. I was just about to leave this palm at that, but then I ran into the web site of a very competent woman who loves these palms. Her name is Lynn McKamey, and she has long and beautiful descriptions of the Rhapis and other rare or unusual plants. This article tells you all you want to know about the excelsa. A few words here will help. These are "rare, slow-growing, undemanding and long-lived." In addition, in her mind, they "display exquisite beauty" and are "elegantly graceful." I guess you just need to spend some time with these so that their beauty grows on you. Some plants, like some people, make an immediate impact on you, but others only slowly work their way into your hearts. Well, the Rhapis are from China, but were first collected by the Japanese from China in the 17th century. Europeans and some Americans began to include them in conservatories and botanical gardens in the 19th century. They grow, in nature, to nearly 15' in height, with great width, but as they became "domesticated" in the 20th century, new varieties in much smaller dimensions became available.

I don't know really what I think about the "bonsaization" of the plant world; I don't mind going "somewhat miniature," so that we can have exemplars easily available, but I guess the notion of eventually having "dwarf giant sequoias" and others makes me chuckle. It is like the Northern (American) Baptist Church in the 19th century, which had quite a strong mission work in Southern Africa, in contrast to the Southern Baptist Convention, which had a strong presence in Northern Africa. Baptists from Tanzania might have been "Northern Baptists" while their counterparts in Cairo would have been "Southern Baptists." There are now 100 varieties of Rhapis excelsa in the Orient (can we still use that term?); several of them have crossed the sea to become located in the otherwise barren, aesthetically and spiritually, American office building. Clearly, there is much to learn about these...

56. I did it again! I only will have space for three plants in this essay. But let's look briefly at the Hoya carnosa 'Variegata.' Known popularly as the "wax plant," it has gently recurved or cuplike leaves, and an easily trailing vine-like character. This is from the Asclepiadaeae family. Its "thick, succulent, opposite" leaves have a heavy wax covering. It also has umbels of flowers which look like star-clusters. The A & M site talks about the clusters and leaves as "cascading," which is a great description for those of us from the Northwest. Here is an amazing close-up picture of the Hoya carnosa flower. Here is the same before the flowers open. I need to learn the "natural history" of the Hoya, and then perhaps put it in a flower pot, hang it on my new pergola and watch it grow! Here is a picture of the hanging plant, though without the flowers....

All for now...

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