Re: Trip to Hortus Botanicus, Leiden

This would be great for the newsletter. Would you give Neil permission to
use it?   Tricia

>From: Al Wootten <awootten@NRAO.EDU>
>Reply-To: aroid-l@mobot.org
>To: Multiple recipients of list AROID-L <aroid-l@mobot.org>
>Subject: Trip to Hortus Botanicus, Leiden
>Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 22:01:01 -0600 (CST)
>
>Folks
>
>Just back from a trip to the ALMA science advisory committee meeting in
>Leiden...that went well but a high point of the adventure was a side trip
>to
>the Hortus Botanicus there.  I missed seeing Wilbert but there were lots
>of araceae friends about.
>
>Ewine had told me that the Hortus, the Leiden botanical garden, had
>recently lost a large tree and was closed for renovation.  Indeed there
>was a huge new greenhouse poking above some construction walls.  I had
>some trouble finding the entrance, but finally saw a small bridge over a
>canal
>which stopped at a closed gate.  I tried it, and it was open, so I went in.
>After browsing the carefully marked beds for a while, I proceeded to the
>greenhouses.  Along one side I found a few of my quarry--Sauromatum,
>Dracunculis and other aroid monsters were just poking their
>brownery above the black soil.  A few blank spots were labelled Arisaema.
>Then I saw the greenhouse entrance and went in.  The first few rooms had
>some interesting palms and Dieffenbachia but nothing
>to set my heart racing.  Then I turned left and into a new room.  To the
>right were ferns and just ahead AMORPHOPHALLI!  I went up to the huge A.
>titanum along the right wall.  Finally, after all these years of
>hearing of this great plant I was confronted by it.  Its lovely green
>stem, more splotched with lighter color at the base, then getting more
>gradual, ended in the familiar trio of Amorphophallus leaves about
>twenty feet or so above my head.  Wow!  Along the wall were a few other
>aroids, a Dracontium gigas and a few other interesting Amorphophalli.  A
>photo on the wall showed the titanum flower which had opened
>a few years before, and which Ewine had visited and smelled.  I
>wandered into the corridor on the left and there were more aroids--a whole
>forest of A. titanum (seedlings of the great blossom, I wondered?  I did
>notice
>that one was labelled Bonn, so I conjectured that there were at least two
>sources).  And wonder of wonders, an exquisite collection of Nepenthes!  I
>rued my decision not to bring my camera (long walk).  Particularly
>wonderful
>was Nepenthes rattlesiana, with enormous pitchers encrusted with spines and
>protrusions.  I returned to the main hall and headed onward.  On the left I
>noticed a whole room of Amophophalli, off limits to casual
>visitors.  Quite a few were either in bloom, or just rising from their
>pots for the season.  From my distance, alas, I couldn't quite make out the
>tags.  Two or three passes along the glass straining my eyes
>and I was ready for whatever came next.  A sign pointed to a stairway where
>the Victoria water lily was promised, so I ascended into a room centered on
>a pool with aquatic plants all about including the famous lily.  My
>attention
>was drawn to a specimen of Orontium aquaticum L. in abundant bloom on the
>far
>wall, single white spathes thrusting upward everywhere from the water,
>fading
>to white and topped with brilliant yellow protuberances.
>Even more exotic than the fabled Victoria waterlily.  Further along, a
>wonderful collection of Cryptocoryne, the first aroid I had grown, in my
>aquarium as a boy.  Very nice specimens of Pellandrum virginica and Anubias
>barteri were also there, but a heavily flowering Lagernandra orata was my
>favorite along the wall opposite Orontium.  Down a staircase on the far
>side
>of this room was an orchid house, mostly closed, and the exit.  I turned
>around to revisit all of these wonders and dwell in the shade of
>A. titanum for a few moments more before heading back along the Rapenburg
>to the Beestenmarkt.  Near here, nearly twenty years before, at the
>International House, I had first become acquainted with Leiden.
>
>Clear skies,
>Al
>+---------------------------------------------------------+
>|Al Wootten, Slacktide, Sturgeon Creek at the Rappahannock|
>|Astronomer (http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/)           |
>|genealogy homepage  http://members.tripod.com/~astral    |
>|Deltaville, Virginia              (804)776-6369          |
>+---------------------------------------------------------+
>
>
>

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