ANBG impressions

Although it is winter, and although it was foggy the first half of our visit, the Australian National Botanic Gardens always have something to see.

Moss cushion on a tree branch.

Golden everlasting flower-head waiting for the sun to come out.

Shadows cast onto a bridge in the rain forest gully.

Spider's web covered with dew.

Blue Mountains Holiday Trip, part 2

Today our goals were the stone pagodas of Garden of Stones and Wollemi National Parks as well as Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens.

The landscape of the sandstone-ironstone pagodas. This picture is taken from atop one of them. I had been looking forward to showing this area to my family.

One of the plants in flower on the way there was Goodenia bellidifolia (Goodeniaceae).

The only downside of getting there is that you have to pass through Newnes State "Forest". Forest as in clear-felling, apparently.

We then returned to Lithgow and drove eastwards from there to Mount Tomah. Shortly before reaching the gardens I noticed Calomeria amaranthoides (Asteraceae) on the roadside. Yes, Asteraceae; it is certainly one of the weirder representatives of this family on a continent that has its fair share of morphologically aberrant daisies.

The above is the view over Mount Tomah Botanic Gardens, with the Blue Mountains in the distance.

My daughter was particularly enchanted by the bog garden, as it had a lot of carnivorous plants on display. Here a detail of a sun-dew (Drosera).

She also liked the remnant rainforest. Here a Microsorum fern is climbing up a trunk.

Germany trip 2016, part 7: Singapore Airport

Back in Australia! We again flew via Singapore, and this time I had the camera with me.

Above the Butterfly Garden in the airport. It is a large open space across both levels of the building.

There are, obviously, butterflies. Apart from the various plants growing in the garden they are provided with cut-flowers like these and pineapple slices, both of which are placed on tables where the travellers can watch with ease.

While many plants were clearly chosen for having flowers adapted to butterfly pollination, there are also many that are simply ornamental. Such as this Selaginella, which of course does not have any flowers at all.

And in a previous post I already mentioned the carnivorous Nepenthes. Again the flowers are not precisely butterfly-attractants, but they are interesting.

Germany trip 2016, part 6: Hamburg Botanic Garden

Today we visited the Botanic Garden of Hamburg, Germany. Not, however, the old, well-known park Planten un Blomen, but the gardens at the second site in the suburb of Klein Flottbek. They are right next to the biological teaching and research centre (Biozentrum) of the Hamburg University.

The gardens are large and offer a huge diversity of sections, including steppe plants, crop plants, medical plants, regional sections representing everything from northern Germany to South America, and much more. A few examples:

The Bauerngarten, or farmer's garden. It features a nice selection of useful plants and ornamentals. There are also some old farming machines exhibited in a corner.

The garden designers show some humour in the Alpinum, the alpine section. Here is a sign as one would see it in the German Alps, reading in translation: Experience with the Alpine environment, a sure step, and a head for heights required. Signed, the German Alps Society.

A few metres on we find this Gipfelkreuz, as one would usually see on the summit of a large mountain (in overly Christian countries, that is). The background shows what dizzying heights the intrepid Alpine hiker will have braved at this point.

While on the topic of crosses, the weirdest part of the botanic gardens might be the Bibelgarten, which consists of plants mentioned in the holy book of one particular religion and signage listing the relevant bible verses. Let's just say that Germany is not the most secular country on the planet and move on.

Much nicer is the Asian section. Not only is it very well landscaped and features beautiful plants...

...it also includes a Japanese rock garden. Despite a slightly confusing sign that seems to forbid it visitors are invited to walk across the larger rocks and the platform but obviously shouldn't step onto the pebble patterns.

Finally, the systematic section. Despite being very new its explanatory signage suffers a bit from scala naturae thinking (e.g. ginkgoes are described as the "oldest" gymnosperms). It is, however, an unusually well landscaped systematic section; this kind of display is all too often built as a simple, linear row of flowerbeds.

The garden does not have an entry fee. Unfortunately the visitor shop is only open on weekends.

Before seeing the gardens I was also able to pay a visit to the Hamburg Herbarium (HBG) and to study some specimens two levels below the ground. The herbarium is huge - I was told 1.8 million specimens -, and the vaults are accordingly large and were in fact something of a maze to me. One factor may be that, as the picture shows, the specimens are not stored in compactus units. I am grateful that I was able to examine a species I could not lay my hands on in Australia, so all in all a great day today.

Germany trip 2016, part 5: tropical crop plants

Today we visited the Universität Kassel Gewächshaus für tropische Nutzpflanzen (greenhouse for tropical crop plants) in Witzenhausen.

It is really a large complex of several connected glasshouses, featuring anything from fruit trees to grains, from dye plants to medical herbs. It also has an outside garden, but we did not take the time to visit that part.

The cocoa plants (Theobroma cacao) were flowering profusely, but also had a few fruits in varying stages of maturity. As most readers who find this will likely know, the flowers are produced on the trunk of the trees.

Near the entrance of the complex is a huge gourd collection. At any rate, if you are botanically interested and find yourself in the vicinity of Witzenhausen, Germany, you may want to drop by. Opening times are rather restricted though.

The agricultural faculty building is largely a former monastery and accordingly old architecture. It has a distinctly ivy league atmosphere, although given the identity of plants covering the façade I should perhaps write Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus, Vitaceae) league.

Germany trip 2016, part 4: Göttingen

I studied biology and obtained my doctorate at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, but I had not visited the town in quite a few years.

The Gänseliesel fountain is probably the most iconic landmark of Göttingen. For many decades graduating Ph.D. students have said goodbye to their university by climbing up to the statue, attaching a bouquet of flowers to her, and kissing her. I did so about eleven years ago. When the tradition started, the town government tried to outlaw it, but today pictures of students kissing the Gänseliesel are shown prominently on tourist brochures.

Part of the botanical collection of the university, with the official herbarium acronym GOET. I visited to examine some specimens.

Afterwards I rejoined my family, and we strolled through the garden. Göttingen is blessed with three botanical gardens:

The Alter Botanischer Garten is in the town centre and features various glasshouses, e.g. fern house, orangerie, succulent house, carnivorous plant and cacti house, cycad house and tropical rainforest house.

It serves mainly public education, teaching and, with the outside areas shown above, as a city park. But it also assisted my research when I did my postgraduate work.

The Experimenteller Botanischer Garten (a.k.a. Neuer Botanischer Garten) was built in the northern part of the city in 1967. With larger grounds but less greenhouses it primarily serves ecological research and teaching, e.g. by growing plants for identification courses, but also has its public education angle.

Finally, the Forstbotanischer Garten is an arboretum on a hill just east of the town. It is large, and when I last saw it parts of it were still undeveloped. Obviously it is largely a tree collection with a few flowerbeds under them. On good days it offers great views over the town.

Botany picture #227: Gossypium sturtianum

Gossypium sturtianum (Malvaceae), the Northern Territory state flower, from our recent weekend visit to the Australian National Botanic Gardens. This is in the still very young Red Centre Garden, with the typical red sand specifically imported to design this section as genuinely as possible.

The question was always how many of the plants originally planted out would like the Canberra climate. Some have not done so well, but others are thriving, among them some Solanum, Acacia, Calandrinia, several Asteraceae including the poached egg daisy, and this species.

Botanically it is basically a native Australian cotton. Typical for many Malvaceae is the fusion of many stamens into a filament tube around the female organs.

Botany picture #221: Hibiscus divaricatus (and two other miscellaneous photos)

Close-up of the flower of Hibiscus divaricatus (Malvaceae), taken today at the Australian National Botanic Gardens. The five stigmatic branches are clearly visible, as is the fact that the stamens are forming a tube around the style in Malvaceae, at least s.str. The filaments of the stamens are fused while the anthers are free; in the Asteraceae, the opposite has happened, and the tube is made from fused anthers while the filaments are free!

We also went down into the ANBG's rainforest gully, where they were spraying mist at the time. Quite an interesting atmosphere.

Finally, one of the rare moments where I show an animal on this blog. This praying mantis was sitting on a sculpture near the rock garden.

Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

We spent the Easter Weekend in Melbourne, visiting family. One of the attractions of the city we visited was the Royal Botanic Gardens. They are free to enter and easily accessible from the city centre, especially via tram. The gardens are next to the Shrine of Remembrance, a war monument.

One of the main entrances is the Observatorium Gate, named after an old astronomical telescope.

Behind this gate on the right you will soon find the Ian Potter Childrens Garden. It features sand and a watercourse, hedge labyrinths of aromatic plants, a vegetable and herb garden, a lookout in a grove of massive bamboos, and a hidden elephant sculpture. I am told it is not usually as full as it is in the above picture; again, it was Easter.

Botanic gardens can serve a myriad of functions - education and training, research, science communication, plant conservation, recreation, and much more, and accordingly they may look very differently. The RBGM looks at first sight very much like a public park, so one feels that the recreation aspect is a big focus. Shown above is the central lake, and when we were there several weddings were taking place around it, probably because it was 4 April, an easy day to remember.

However, there were also science communication activities going on; we came past a big stall presenting different wooden plant fruits, ethnobotanical information, and photographs of the Amorphophallus that was unfortunately just past flowering. And of course the RBGM are also one of Australia's top botanical research institutions and feature one of the largest herbaria on the continent. I have yet to visit it, because so far I have only made it to Melbourne for a conference or on public holidays...

Finally, this is what I find particularly fascinating about the vistas of the RBGM: The city centre of Melbourne is so close that one will often see the towering skyline directly behind an open park landscape. It looks downright photoshopped sometimes, like one of those surreal SF book covers where a futuristic city sits directly in the middle of wilderness.

Australia's National Arboretum, part 2: Bonsai collection

As mentioned in yesterday's post on the National Arboretum, the National Bonsai and Penjing Collection (NBPC) was one of the main reasons we went there. I would never have the patience to grow a bonsai myself, but I appreciate them as an art form.

Until the opening of the arboretum, the NBPC was located in Commonwealth Park near the city centre. Although that was more easily accessible especially during the annual Floriade, the new premises work well, and it fits the theme of the arboretum.

A significant part of the collection is made up by native plants such as Banksias or, as in the above case, paperbarks.

Bonsai are Japanese miniature trees, but what are penjing? They are in a way the Chinese counterpart, but the Penjing tradition does not focus on single trees but instead entails the construction of miniature landscapes. They often consist of several species of plants, interestingly shaped rocks, and small houses, boats or figurines.

Above a very nice penjing with fruiting and flowering plants of different species. One is reminded of model train sets without the trains.

And finally an example with figurines, in this case of horses. In addition to the plants, the collection also features examples of fossil wood from the Jurassic. All in all well worth a visit.

Australia's National Arboretum, part 1

Today we had a family outing to the National Arboretum of Australia, as we had been meaning to do for quite some time already. The arboretum only opened in 2013, as it had been built after the devastating 2003 bush fires on what used to be pine plantations.

Most parts of the arboretum are therefore very recent plantings and will only look interesting twenty years from now. Among the few forest elements that are older is the cork oak plantation seen above. It was planted shortly after Canberra's founding to give the city its own supply of cork. Another is a large stand of Himalayan cedars that is now home to a nice barbecuing site and outlook, and unfortunately some pine plantations have also survived the fires.

When I think of the arboretums I have seen in other parts of the world, I see park-like plantings of many different species of trees, often with an ecological or geographic theme: this is the forest of the Appalachian mountains of North America, over here is a typical mountain forest in southern China, and so on. It is therefore somewhat puzzling that the National Arboretum apparently decided that it would simply divide its area into 104 large cells and then plant only one (rarely two) species in each cell.

Seen in the picture above is the cell for the Californian Fan Palm, and as one can see it contains only Californian Fan Palms, and they are planted in straight lines, and the lines are very far apart. I have no idea why anybody would think that this would be of any particular interest to even a very charitable visitor even twenty years from now when the palms are taller. There will be lines and lines of the same type of tree of the same height, without any underlying story to it. How charming. Did the designers never visit other arboreta? Or is this all perhaps merely meant to safeguard genetic resources as opposed to educate the public?

Well, at least the background of the picture also shows that the arboretum provides magnificent views over Canberra...

...which are sadly marred by so-called artwork that looks like scrap metal. I will never understand why it is considered appropriate to clutter botanical gardens and parks that people visit for the plants and flowers with sculptures. Each to their own I guess.

But I don't want to come across as too negative. The so-called village centre depicted above is currently perhaps the greatest attraction. It features a restaurant / café, a shop, a large science exhibit, ...

...the truly awesome pod playground, which our daughter ultimately had to be dragged away from (I mean, just look at it!), and Australia's National Bonsai and Penjing Collection. These last two alone are worth the visit, and because this has already got quite long I will keep the Bonsai collection for another post, perhaps as soon as tomorrow.