Lotuses at the Meise Botanical Gardens

One of the other water plants in the Victoria House of the Plant Palace of the Meise Botanical Gardens is the lotus.

Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera

I will be adding more details about the lotus in terms of symbolism, use and so on.

Genus Name: Nymphaea

Common names: Lotus, Indian Lotus, Sacred Lotus, Bean of India (English) ; Lotus sacré,
Lotus d'Orient (French); Heilige lotus, Indische lotus (Dutch); Indische Lotosblume (German); fior di loto asiatico(Italian); (Spanish): loto sagrado, loto indio, rosa del Nilo (Spanish); lótus, flor-de-lótus, loto-índico e lótus-índico (Portuguese);

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: Proteanae –

Order: Proteales –

Family: Nelumbonaceae –

Genus: Nelumbo – 

Species: Nelumbo nucifera  –

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 [September 9th 2014], from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database, http://www.itis.gov.

References:


On-line sources:

• Royal Horticultural Society: Entry for Nelumbo nucifera: Sacred Lotus
• Official Website of the: Meise Botanical Gardens
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System on-line database: Entry for Nelumbo nucifera
• Wikipedia: Entry for Nelumbo nucifera
• Wikipedia: Entry for Nelumbo
• Wikipedia: Entry for Lotus effect

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/

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/