The south-sea beaches to the south of Jogyakarta on the island of Java, Indonesia, are absolutely stunning (see e.g. an earlier photo of Parangtritis in my photostream). But at some point one has to return to the city...
Driving north through the lusciously green countryside dotted with villages and kampungs - some with rermarkable architecture and art in which a synthesis has been made of Catholic christianity and Javanese Hindu forms - the road merges into one of the suburbs of the great city. The kampung Prawirotaman sprang up on a tract of land given by the sultan to one of his military men in the nineteenth century. His three sons developed here a batik industry and later ventured into the guest house trade. And the area is dotted now with many losmen and smallish hotels.
The Jogya Dusun (= Village) Inn is one of these. A small hotel - some call it a boutique hotel - its garden is wonderful. In fact, a staff member is quite the botanist and he has collected many plants, often unusual and hailing from remote places. They are carefully nurtured, and through the small central garden with clattering fountain waft the various floral aromas of the different periods of the day.
This marvellous salmon hibiscus was photographed early on the morning of our departure for the airport. To my eyes it is so beautiful that I must one time return to look at its descendants.

Tags:   Jogyakarta Java Indonesia Hibiscus Parangtritis Prawirotaman Jogya Dusun Village Inn ish@Flickr BEJ NaturesFinest SOE BlueRibbonWinner ABigFave feature mywinners

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Nedel-Ambel, Limnanthemum, Villarsia, Menyanthes, Nymphaea and finally Nymphoides: a variety of names given to our Water snowflake, Floating heart or White water fringe down through many centuries. Not, by the way, to be confused with any kind of water lily as has often been done.
Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Draakenstein (1636-1691), governor for the Dutch East Indies Company of Cochin, India (west coast), and avid botanist, gives a first European description under the name Nedel-Ambel. This is apparently what our plant's designation was in Ayurvedic Indian medicine, for Rheede's main informant about Malabar plants was Itty Achuadan Vaidyan, his close Ayurvedic colaborator in his enormously wide-ranging collecting of plants. The same plant was described by De Tournefort (in 1700) and by the "Blind Visionary" of Ambon, Rumphius (in 1750) respectively as Nymphoides indica and ceramica (= from the island of Ceram). And there were other names as well - e.g. Linnaeus' Menyanthes (1753) - until the work of Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze (1843-1907). Since then (1891) the Nymphoides indica name has stuck.
It can easily be seen how Kuntze was appalled at this confusion with regard to the nomenclatura of this plant and a great many others. Originally a 'mere' druggist', he was also an amateur botanist. He set up a firm which extracted and sold plant oils; ... and he made his fortune, allowing him to travel widely and to take a Ph.D. on a study of the quinine shrub (1878). Then Kuntze decided to put forward an entirely new system of plant classification. This he did so unwisely and with such personal vehemence that he was soon an outcast in botanist circles. Even today the mere mention of his name can raise the hackles of botanists. Regardless, much of Kuntze's field work - and even his historical botanical studies - is still up-to-date and a boon to (the history of) botany.
This photo was taken in Senggigi, Lombok, Indonesia, across from the Art Market, meant to entice tourists. The Market lives an unexciting life because tourism here has waned. But the beach just behind is marvellous, and on clear days the majestic Gunung Agung of Bali can be seen shimmering through the haze on the horizon.

Tags:   Nedel-Ambel Limnanthemum Menyanthes Nymphaea Nymphoides indica Nymphoides ceramica Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Draakenstein VOC Dutch East Indies Trading Company Cochin India Ayurvedic medicine Malabar coast Itty Achuadan Vaidyan J.P. de Tournefort J.G. Rumphius Ambon Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze quinine Senggigi, Lombok Lombok Bali Villarsia Gunung Agung Carolus Linnaeus FLOWERSAdminFave SOE BlueRibbonWinner ABigFave PlatinumPhoto AnAwesomeShot TheUnforgettablePictures Damn! I Wish I'd Taken That!!! OverTheExcellence NaturesFinest SearchTheBest ExCaptureMacro ImpressedBeauty GoldDragon Awesome Blossoms ish@Flickr

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A couple of days ago I posted "Tsubaki in Groningen I", but I couldn't resist another photo - though in the light drizzle - from the same shrub in my garden abutting the vaster expanse of the unviersity garden which incorporates what was once that of the third order Franciscan sisters of the Sijwen convent.
After Linnaeus had altered the Kämpher name of Tsubaki to camellia, it remained relatively unknown until the exploits of Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (1796-1866). Von Siebold, originally a German physician, took service with the Dutch and spent 1823-1829 and 1859-1862 on Decima island, just off the coast of Nagasaki in Japan. Here he practiced and taught western medicine, and put together an enormous collection of natural specimens which he shipped to Europe. Banned from Japan as being a spy - detailed maps of that country were found in his luggage on its inspection by the authorities - he returned to Europe in 1830 and made landfall at Antwerp harbor. Just then the Belgians were fighting for their independence from the Netherlands and they refused to allow Von Siebold's collection to be transported to Leiden. The intrepid doctor however managed to convince them that his collection of dried 'stuff' had no commerical value and he was given leave to take the precious cargo to Leiden, via Rotterdam and Gent. Here it became the basis of much European research of Japan (honored recently by the university of Leiden in the establishment of a museum named after Von Siebold in his former house on the Rapenburg near the 'Academie'). The camellia - now called masayoshi - was part of this enterprise.
In Japan, Von Siebold had fallen in love with Kasumoto Taki, but the law had not allowed them to marry. Living outside of official wedlock, they had a daughter Oine or Ine (1827-1903), who was the first female medical doctor in Japan. This camellia photo is in ironic fashion - see my earlier posting - dedicated to the memory of these courageous women, mother and daughter, who resisted social pressure against foreigners and who were proudly independent.

Tags:   camellia tsubaki Sijwen convent Groningen Carolus Linnaeus Engelbert Kämpher Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold Japan Belgium Leiden Rotterdam Gent masayoshi Kasumoto Taki Kasumoto Ine ish@Flickr Nagasaki (Decima) Antwerp TheUnforgettablePictures BlueRibbonWinner ABigFave 4mazinGorgeouShots oFlowers Excellent Photographer Awards AnAwesomeShot Brilliant-Eye-Jewel The Perfect Photographer AwesomeBlossoms

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It's said in many a handbook that pretty little Lawn Daisy flowers from January to December; so all year around! It's still Winter here but as soon as the snow had melted off our Lawn... indeed, there was the white and yellow with its young pink fringes of Bruisewort low on the soggy ground, struggling above the still inch-deep frost.
The great European-English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400) had a special love for Bellis perennis. It reminded him of everlasting amore. In the Prologue to his Legend of Good Women he calls this Daisy 'dameseye' or 'the eye of day'; it's 'the emperice ... of floures alle'. This entire Prologue is a comparison of Dameseye to the Love for and of women. 'It's not in my power to praise it fully, but it's "fresh of hewes (= color) in wynter as in somer newe"'. And that was my experience today as well.
Here's a Daisy from our Lawn, a bit bedraggled by Winter Rain but courageously opening up to a brighter patch of clouds. Bellis perennis, Always Pretty.

Tags:   Bellis perennis Lawn Daisy Bruisewort Dameseye Ye of Day Geoffrey Chaucer madeliefje Blink Again Super Shot Awesome Blossoms Fantastic Flower my_gear_and_me

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Today I went again to the fantastic Garfield Park Conservatory. I'd not been last year and had not yet seen the horrible damage done by the June 30, 2011 hailstorm. Very much of the glass paning was then destroyed. But the authorities and workers have admirably restored much, and progress is being made to a complete revamp. Even now there's much to see both inside the glass houses and in the extensive grounds.
Walking in Lincoln Park the other day I'd noticed how much lighter in color the Honey Bees are here compared to the ones I'm used to in The Netherlands. The same in Garfield Park. So I thought I'd look into this.
It appears that the Common European Honey Bee, Apis mellifera mellifera, was carried over to North America in the 1620s, notably to Jamestown Colony. But in the mid-1800s, new kinds were sought and found. Samuel Wagner (1798-1879) and Richard Colvin (?-?) of Baltimore tried first to import another European Honey Bee to North America, Apis mellifera ligustica, The Honey Carrier of Liguria, northwest Italy. Their colonies died, however, en route to America. Full-scale introduction of the Italian Honey Bee didn't take place until the late 1860s. Today this Golden Honey Bee is dominant here. It's really exquisitely beautiful, and I spent a wonderful time in nice Chicago sunshine watching Ligurian antics!
Here two Honey Ladies have met on Pretty Dahlia.

Tags:   Honey Bee Apis mellifera mellifera Apis mellifera ligustica Garfield Park Conservatory, Chicago, Illinois, USA Richard Colvin Samuel Wagner Dahlia FlickrAward Blink Again ish@Flickr Fantastic Flower my_gear_and_me

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