Victoria amazonica, or Water Platters

So here we are at the welcoming display for the Philly Flower Show. As I mentioned yesterday, the theme is "Passport to the World". This display, for the most part, had a South Asian/Southeast Asian theme.


As you can see in the foreground, there's Gynura sarmentosa or purple passion plant, which is native to the Philippines, and a species of Cycas which could (depending on the species) be native to the Philippines as well. In fact, 9 of the 70-odd species of Cycas are endemic to this country.



Of course, we go off script with a weeping cherry to the left and with the Cyperus papyrus near the footbridge. Another geographic anomaly would be the floating discs on display, but I can't fault the designer for adding them; these plants no doubt will capture the interest of novice plant lovers.


These are Victoria amazonica which, as you can gather from the species name, are new world plants, native to the Amazon basin. They are in the Nymphaeaceae family and are thus related to waterlilies, or Nymphaea.


Of course the differences among the genera are striking; water platters are not only far larger than waterlilies, but they have a scary-spiny underside. This helps the plant distribute its weight and indeed a Victoria leaf can support 70 pounds of load.

Equisetum hyemale

There are a fair amount of wetland plants listed on the High Line's plant list, one of which is Equisetum hyemale, or giant horsetail.


Now, at this point I have to pause to explain a bit about how I write this blog. I take my camera with me everywhere and if I see something that interests me, I take a photo of it. Most of the time I know what I'm looking at, but if I don't and I have the time, I try to identify the plant. After that I google it, trying to find some more information about the plant. If you're a regular reader, you know I have a soft spot for etymology or unusual things regarding plant morphology, lineage or ethnobotany.


I knew the plant above was Equisetum but you can imagine my excitement when the first hit on google reads as such:

Equisetum hyemale is not a rush however. Nor is it a fern. Equisetum is the single surviving genus of a class of primitive vascular plants that dates back to the ...

To the what?! Well, after reading on, I find that this species dates back to the mid-Devonian period (of course) which was about 350 million years ago. And little facts like that really make my day. (To assure you that I don't take the first google hit as gospel, know that I try to verify a fact like that on a few other reputable sites before regurgitating it on this blog.)



Equisetum is also lumped into the category of fern ally -- it means that while the plant is not a fern (another ancient primitive plant type), it is similar in that the plant doesn't flower, nor has seeds and instead reproduces with spores. Other fern allies include Lycopodium and Salaginella.

Battery Park Aquatics

Here are a few summer aquatics from the pond at Battery Park.

First, we have Canna glauca or aquatic Canna. This species is native to Central America and is closely related to the annual Cannas you may find in pots over the summer. Canna belong to their own family, Cannaceae and their closest relatives are other members of the ginger (Zingiberales) order.



These are not perennial aquatics, they are most likely placed in the pond each spring.


Pontederia cordata, or pickerelweed, is a worthy pond plant. Though invasive in the wild (or increasingly becoming so) it is very effective in removing pollutants from a pond. It is perennial and has great arrowhead shaped leaves.


As for this plant's common name, pickerel is a word for small or juvenile pike. This plant is called pickerelweed because it grows in slow-moving water where pickerel are apt to be found.

Evidently, Chaucer had some opinions on this:

Bet [better] is, quoth he, a pike than a pickerel.
-- Chaucer

Why he felt this way, I have no idea.


Finally, a favorite of mine: Nelumbo nucifera, or Lotus:


Lotus leaves, you may have noticed, are superhydrophobic. In fact, when this property is observed in other biological surfaces, it is casually referred to as the Lotus Effect. The properties of the leaves, which allow water to bead up completely and roll off the plant are studied intensely by people who want to mimic those characteristics in manmade products (think scotch guard).


The fact that these leaves repel water and dirt is part of the reason they are considered sacred. In the muddiest of rivers, they remain pure.

The nomenclature derives from the Sinhalese word Nelum- which is the local name for the lotus. Nucifera means bearing nuts -- the fruits that are found in the persistent dried seed pods.

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I'm off to the Pacific Northwest for a long weekend. Expect a few photos of whatever I find at Mount Rainier after Tuesday. In the meantime, I have scheduled a few more student posts...