Morning Eye Candy: Big, Bad
Posted in Around the Garden, Photography on September 12th, 2012 by Matt Newman – 1 CommentIn the tropical pool of the Conservatory Courtyard: Victoria amazonica. Big. Bad. Lily pad.
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen
Posts Tagged ‘Lily Pad’
Botanical Behemoth
Posted in Around the Garden, Gardens and Collections on August 14th, 2012 by Matt Newman – Be the first to comment
In late summer, the NYBG‘s Enid A. Haupt Conservatory becomes the home of a botanical behemoth, one of the largest leaved plants in the world. And each year, visitors find themselves caught off guard by the delightful weirdness of this tropical oddity: Victoria amazonica. Originally from the Amazon River basin, it’s long since become an iconic display in our tropical water lily pond.
Named for Britain’s Queen Victoria in the nineteenth century, the structure of the largest of water lilies is a bit like a kiddie pool (and often as big as one). Its broad, smooth leaves can stretch to nearly ten feet in diameter, forming expansive discs with sharply upturned edges that, again, make it look as though you could drop one in your backyard with a few gallons of water and a pool noodle. At maturity, their short-lived flowers can reach 15 inches across, opening white on the first evening as females, and pink on the second as males. It’s a brief display; the flowers (hopefully) attract pollinating beetles to do nature’s work, then sink below the water’s surface almost as abruptly as they emerged.
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Morning Eye Candy: Fit For a Prince
Posted in Photography on May 17th, 2011 by Ann Rafalko – Be the first to commentOr perhaps a frog?
Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen