Giant Water lilies at the Meise Botanical Gardens

One of the things that I had been really looking forward to when I planned my visit to the Meise Botanical Gardens was seeing the Giant Water lilies, Nymphaea gigantea and Santa Cruz Waterlilies, Victoria cruziana. Unfortunately the Santa Cruz Water lilies were not in flower and the Giant Water lilies appeared to have just finished flowering and the remaining flower-heads were looking rather dilapidated.

Victoria cruziana and Nymphaea gigantea in the Victoria House of the Miese Botanical Garden Plant Palace

Victoria cruziana and Nymphaea gigantea in the Victoria House of the Miese Botanical Garden Plant Palace

 Victoria cruziana was discovered in Bolivia by French Naturalist Alcide d'Orbigny during one of his expeditions in the region. The species is named after Andrés de Santa Cruz who had sponsored the expedition by Alcide's brother Charles Henry Dessalines d'Orbigny a botanist and geologist.
Santa Cruz was President of Peru and Boliva and was Supreme Protector of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation. It's more well known relative is Victoria amazonica which was originally called Victoria regina in honour of Queen Victoria although the name was changed to that of the Amazon where it is found in shallow waters of the Amazon Basin. The Genus Victoria is was also named in honour of Queen Victoria.
Nymphaea gigantea on the other hand is native to Australia and New Guinea.

Nymphaea gigantea in the Victoria House of the Miese Botanical Garden Plant Palace

Scientific Name: Nymphaea gigantea

Common names: Water lilies (English); Nénuphar d'ustralie (French); Australische waterlelie (Dutch)

Victoria cruziana in the Victoria House of the Miese Botanical Garden Plant Palace

Scientific Name: Victoria cruziana

Common names: Santa Cruz Water lily, Water platter, yrupe (English); Nénuphar géant (French); Reuzenwaterlelie (Dutch)

Taxonomic hierarchy: 

Kingdom: Plantae - Plants

Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae – Green plants

Infrakingdom: Streptophyta – Land plants

Division: Tracheophyta – Vascular plants

Subdivision: Spermatophytina – Spermatophytes (seed plants)

Infradivision: Angiospermae – Angiosperms (flowering plants)

Class: Magnoliopsida –

Superorder: Nymphaeanae –

Order: Nypmhaeales –

Family: Nymphaceae – Water lilies (English)

Genus: Nymphaea – 

Species: Nymphaea gigantea – 

Genus: Victoria – 

Species: Victoria cruziana – 

Notes: 

• I am using the taxonomical classification system used by ITIS (Intergrated Taxonomic Information System). I have decided to use this system in order to avoid confusion as well as because it offers a comprehensive hierarchy from kingdom right through to subspecies whereas other sources only go as far as order or  provide the names of some of the higher taxonomical ranks but only indicate "unclassified" rather than providing the rank.
• When and where possible I will endeavour to include alternatives classifications although  I may limit this to occasions where an opportunity arises to discuss the reason for the different classifications.
• Taxonomical data used in this post was retrieved [June 15 2014], from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database, http://www.itis.gov.

References:

Books:


On-line sources:

• Royal Horticultural Society: Entry for Water lilies
• Official Website of the: Meise Botanical Gardens
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database: Entry for Nymphaea
• Wikipedia: Entry for Water Lilies
• Wikipedia: Entry for Nymphaeaceae 
• Wikipedia: Entry for Victoria (plant)
• Wikipedia: Entry for Victoria amazonica
• Wikipedia: Entry for Victoria cruziana
• Wikipedia: Entry for Nympahaea gigantea
• Wikipedia: Entry for Alcide d'Orbigny
• Wikipedia: Entry for Andrés de Santa Cruz
• Wikipedia: Entry for Charles Henry Dessalines d'Orbigny

Further reading:

• Caryologia Vol 59 No. 1 25-30 (2006) PDF of article: Nuclear DNA C-values in 12 species of Nymphaeales
• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A. May 25, 2004; 101(21): 8056–8060 Article by Gandolfo M.A., Nixon K.C. and Crepet W. L. : Cretaeous flowers of Nymphaeacea and implications for complex insect entrapment pollination mechanisms in early Angiosperms.

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

More Nymphaea at the Meise Botanical Gardens

The pond in the Victoria House is rather large as you can see. This enables it to contain several species of Nympheae as well as to accommodate at least two species of Victoria not to mention a host of other water plants. There appeared to be three Nymphaea although I may have missed some which were not flowering or looked like the ones I was able to get close enough to or at least zoom in on the name tags to see them. As it is two of them look very similar and it is only  when you look at them that you can see that there is a slight difference. But if they are in the middle of the pond ... several meters away ... well ... it is not as evident. You can judge for yourself from the photos below.

Nymphaea "Director G. T. Moore"

Nymphaea "Director G. T. Moore"

Note the similarity between Nymphaea "Director G. T. Moore" and Nympheae caerulea. Note however that part of the reason that the Nymphaea "Director G. T. Moore" looks a lot darker is because the Nympheae caerulea were in direct sunlight. To me it looks like the Nympheae caerulea has many more stamens. The problem is I still have not been able to figure out of Nymphaea "Director G. T. Moore" is an actual species or a cultivar or hybrid perhaps.

Nympheae caerulea

Nympheae caerulea

With Nympheae"General Pershing" on the other hand there is no difficulty in seeing that it is obviously a completely different plant although as with Nympheae"General Pershing" I am not sure if this is a species, cultivar or hybrid. To me it seems that whenever a name is in quotation marks it means that it is a hybrid. I could be wrong.
I will keep looking and when I find out or if someone writes in and enlightens me I will update the post.

Nympheae"General Pershing"

Nympheae"General Pershing"

Genus Name: Nymphaea

Common names: Water lilies (English) ;

Taxonomic hierarchy: 

Kingdom: Plantae - Plants

Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae – Green plants

Infrakingdom: Streptophyta – Land plants

Division: Tracheophyta – Vascular plants

Subdivision: Spermatophytina – Spermatophytes (seed plants)

Infradivision: Angiospermae – Angiosperms (flowering plants)

Class: Magnoliopsida –

Superorder: Nymphaeanae –

Order: Nypmhaeales –

Family: Nymphaceae – Water lilies (English)

Genus: Nymphaea – 

Species: Nymphaea 'Director G. T. Moore' – 

Species: Nymphaea caerulea – 
Species: Nymphaea 'General Perishing' – Blue Egyptian Water lily, Sacred Blue Egyptian Water lily (English); Lotus bleu d'Egypte (French); Egyptiche blauwe lotus (Dutch)

Notes: 

• I am using the taxonomical classification system used by ITIS (Intergrated Taxonomic Information System). I have decided to use this system in order to avoid confusion as well as because it offers a comprehensive hierarchy from kingdom right through to subspecies whereas other sources only go as far as order or  provide the names of some of the higher taxonomical ranks but only indicate "unclassified" rather than providing the rank.
• When and where possible I will endeavour to include alternatives classifications although  I may limit this to occasions where an opportunity arises to discuss the reason for the different classifications.
• Taxonomical data used in this post was retrieved [June 15 2014], from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database, http://www.itis.gov.

References:


On-line sources:

• Royal Horticultural Society: Entry for Water lilies
• Official Website of the: Meise Botanical Gardens
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database: Entry for Nymphaea
• Wikipedia: Entry for Water Lilies
• Wikipedia: Entry for Nymphaeaceae

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Nymphaea at the Meise Botanical Gardens

I had intended to do the introductory post about my visit to the Meise Botanical Gardens in Belgium before doing other posts related to it. Likewise I had intended to a similar introductory post about the University of Bristol Botanical Gardens before doing any posts on them. As it is I actually did write something about the University of Bristol Botanical Gardens describing them in quite some detail which is why later on I did a quick post about the water lilies there, only to discover when I tried to find the post in order to create a link to it that it did not exist. To make things worse I could not find the document I wrote anywhere which means that I will have to do it all over again from scratch. In the meantime I have decided to go ahead and do another water lily post.

Nymphea 'Director G. T. Moore' in the Victoria House of the Meise Greenhouse Complex

The Meise Botanical Gardens has a large greenhouse complex referred to as the "Plant Palace" which is divided in to distinct sections, each with its own micro climate tailored to the plants in it. The Victoria House is the most humid one of all and houses a number of the Water Lily Family, Nymphaeaceae which includes various Nymphaea (water lilies) and Victoria (Giant lilies), Lotus Family, Nelumbonaceae and other water plants.

Nymphea 'Director G. T. Moore'

One of the Nymphea that was in bloom was Nymphea 'Director G. T. Moore'. In the background you should also be able to see at least three other water plants.

I have been trying to find out if Nymphea 'Director G. T. Moore' is a species or a cultivar as well as who the illustrious 'Director G. T. Moore' is but have not had much luck yet.

As usual I will update the post when I find and verify additional information.
Future posts will include the following:

Victoria amazonica
Nymphaea caerulea
Nymphaea gigantea
Nelumbo nucifera 

Genus Name: Nymphaea

Common names: Water lilies (English) ;

Taxonomic hierarchy: 

Kingdom: Plantae - Plants

Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae – Green plants

Infrakingdom: Streptophyta – Land plants

Division: Tracheophyta – Vascular plants

Subdivision: Spermatophytina – Spermatophytes (seed plants)

Infradivision: Angiospermae – Angiosperms (flowering plants)

Class: Magnoliopsida –

Superorder: Nymphaeanae –

Order: Nypmhaeales –

Family: Nymphaceae – Water lilies (English)

Genus: Nymphaea – 

Species: Nymphaea 'Director G. T. Moore' – 

Notes: 

• I am using the taxonomical classification system used by ITIS (Intergrated Taxonomic Information System). I have decided to use this system in order to avoid confusion as well as because it offers a comprehensive hierarchy from kingdom right through to subspecies whereas other sources only go as far as order or  provide the names of some of the higher taxonomical ranks but only indicate "unclassified" rather than providing the rank.
• When and where possible I will endeavour to include alternatives classifications although  I may limit this to occasions where an opportunity arises to discuss the reason for the different classifications.
• Taxonomical data used in this post was retrieved [June 15 2014], from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database, http://www.itis.gov.

References:


On-line sources:

• Royal Horticultural Society: Entry for Water lilies
• Official Website of the: Meise Botanical Gardens
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database: Entry for Nymphaea
• Wikipedia: Entry for Water Lilies
• Wikipedia: Entry for Nymphaeaceae

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Nymphaea - Water Lilies at the University of Bristol Botanical Gardens

One of the things that I really liked about the University of Bristol Botanical Gardens were the water lilies. There are two water features. The first and biggest it the big pond near the entrance and the second is a raised concrete pond near the Mediterranean plants.

It is not difficult to understand Monet's fascination for water lilies. There is just something about water lilies that just captivates people. Maybe it is the combination of the stunning colours and delicate beauty together with the way most of the time they are out of reach so the only way to appreciate them is to stand as close to the water edge as possible and devour them with your eyes.

Add caption

Genus Name: Nymphaea

Common names: Water lilies (English) ;

Taxonomic hierarchy: 

Kingdom: Plantae - Plants

Subkingdom: Viridaeplantae – Green plants

Infrakingdom: Streptophyta – Land plants

Division: Tracheophyta – Vascular plants

Subdivision: Spermatophytina – Spermatophytes (seed plants)

Infradivision: Angiospermae – Angiosperms (flowering plants)

Class: Magnoliopsida –

Superorder: Nymphaeanae –

Order: Nypmhaeales –

Family: Nymphaceae – Water lilies (English)

Genus: Nymphaea – 

Species: Nymphaea alba – European White Water lily, White Water lily (English)

Species: Nymphaea odorata  – American Water lily, American White Water lily, WhiteWater lily (English)
Species: Nymphaea mexicana – Yellow Water lily, Banana Water lily (English)

Notes: 

• I am using the taxonomical classification system used by ITIS (Intergrated Taxonomic Information System). I have decided to use this system in order to avoid confusion as well as because it offers a comprehensive hierarchy from kingdom right through to subspecies whereas other sources only go as far as order or  provide the names of some of the higher taxonomical ranks but only indicate "unclassified" rather than providing the rank.
• When and where possible I will endeavour to include alternatives classifications although  I may limit this to occasions where an opportunity arises to discuss the reason for the different classifications.
• Taxonomical data used in this post was retrieved [June 15 2014], from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database, http://www.itis.gov.

References:


On-line sources:

• Royal Horticultural Society: Entry for Water lilies
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database: Entry for Nymphaea
• Wikipedia: Entry for Water Lilies
• Wikipedia: Entry for Nymphaeaceae
• Wikipedia: Entry for Water Lilies
•  

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/

Antwerp Botanical Garden. Assorted flowers.

Here are some more photos of some of the plants that I came across in the Antwerp Botanical Garden. And yes there were quite a few bees buzzing about especially amongst the flowers of the Asteraceae family, such as this Echinacea.

These were in the garden area accessed through the other entrance which connects to what I consider the main area of the garden via a small passage through a dividing wall. Here they had a couple big signs posted but none of the plants were actually labelled. I was quite surprised to note how many varieties and species of Echinacea existed. 

 Later on while on my way back to the train station I got a wee bit lost and as always when that happens, serendipity struck and I came across a square with an astounding number of these. Don't worry THAT is for another post.

Notes: 

• I am using the taxonomical classification system used by ITIS (Intergrated Taxonomic Information System). I have decided to use this system in order to avoid confusion as well as because it offers a comprehensive hierarchy from kingdom right through to subspecies whereas other sources only go as far as order or  provide the names of some of the higher taxonomical ranks but only indicate "unclassified" rather than providing the rank.
• When and where possible I will endeavour to include alternatives classifications although  I may limit this to occasions where an opportunity arises to discuss the reason for the different classifications.
• Taxonomical data used in this post was retrieved [June 15 2014], from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database, http://www.itis.gov.

Location:
Leopoldstraat 24, B-2000 Antwerpen

How to Get There:

Train:To Antwerp Central then walk along the main shopping street De Keyserlei which becomes Leysstraat after it intersects Frankrijklei and eventually becomes Meir after intersecting Otto Veniusstraat and Jezusstraat. It sounds confusing but basically Otto Veniusstraat should be on your left and Jezusstraat on your right as you enter Meir.
Then you just continue till the end of Meir where it connects with Huideverettersstraat. You turn left and go down Huideverettersstraat until it intersects Schuttersofsstraat. You should continue down the left hand fork which Komedieplaats and becomes Leopoldstraat after it intersects with Arenbergstraat. The Botanic Garden should be on your right hand side.

An alternative route is via the right hand fork after Huideverettersstraat which is Lange Gasthuisstraat. The Entrance to the Botanical Garden will be on your left but it is not very obvious. I only found it by accident and after going through discovered the Leopoldstraat entrance from which you can easily see the botanical garden as you walk past.

Additional information:

• Botanic Gardens Conservation International. Entry for Antwerp Botanical Garden

Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters Blog by Vincent Albert Vermeulen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Based on a work at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.be/.

My other blogs

· Flora and Fauna - Plants and Critters (on plants, animals as well as gardening, conservation and environmental matters): http://plantsandcritters.blogspot.com/
· The Blood of Souls (language, translation and etymology) : http://thebloodofsouls.blogspot.com/
· Whiskers on Kittens (Life with Kittens and Cats in general) : http://whiskersonkittens-vincent.blogspot.com/